ICTP is expanding its free, online, interactive streaming options for its seminars and colloquia to mitigate some of the effects of isolation during the COVID-19 emergency and beyond.

Each year, ICTP organizes more than 80 seminars featuring speakers from it own research groups as well as prominent visiting scientists. Until now, ICTP seminars have taken place mostly off-line, in lecture rooms at its Trieste campus. But with the campus now closed in response to the coronavirus crisis, the Centre has decided to take advantage of online meeting technology to offer the seminars "virtually". Now, scientists anywhere in the world will have expanded, interactive access to ICTP's rich programme of lectures by staff scientists and invited speakers.

This is especially good news for researchers at ICTP's partner institutes in Rwanda, China, Brazil and Mexico, opening a door for them to connect to their colleagues around the world.

In addition, ICTP plans to provide interactive streaming of its colloquia, a series of lectures which aims to increase interaction between its research groups as well as expose doctoral students to the Centre's rich array of physics and mathematics activities. Past colloquia, as well as a large collection of recorded ICTP activities, are available on its YouTube channel.

The streaming events follow on a number of actions ICTP has taken to keep its scientific community informed and involved. The Centre's Marie Curie Library regularly posts on its website links to publishers who are allowing free access to science journals. Students in ICTP's Postgraduate Diploma Programme and its masters degree programmes continue to receive instruction online. In addition, ICTP has launched a web portal and dedicated email address for the coronavirus crisis.

"The mission of a global institute like ICTP perhaps has an even greater relevance and urgency in this crisis, which could accentuate intellectual isolation in different parts of the world," said ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar, adding, "Perhaps this adversity is also an opportunity to think of new ways to deliver on this mission. Using interactive technology is one way ICTP can help diminish the intellectual isolation many of us are experiencing during this coronavirus crisis."

Upcoming virtual seminars are listed below; for updates, please check here. All will be run with the free video conferencing application Zoom.

2 April: Matching type-B conformal anomalies

7 April: Virtual Joint ICTP/SISSA Statistical Physics Seminar

9 April: Three Avatars of Mock Modularity

21 April: Virtual Joint ICTP/SISSA Statistical Physics Seminar