Since 1982, the ICTP Prize recognises young scientists from developing countries who have made outstanding and original contributions to physics.

Each year, the ICTP Prize is given in honour of a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field in which the prize is given. The 2024 ICTP Prize is dedicated to the memory of Freeman Dyson, a theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works ranging from quantum field theory and astrophysics to the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, and whose eminently deep and creative work accompanied and shaped theoretical physics of the second part of the last century.

ICTP will celebrate the two winners of the 2024 ICTP Prize with a ceremony on Wednesday, 27 August at 14:00 in the Budinich Lecture Hall.

The two recipients -Prof. Ranjan Laha, assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and Prof. Enzo Tagliazucchi, professor of computational neuroscience at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and principal researcher at the the Latin American Brain Institute (Chile)- share the award for their innovative and creative application of theoretical physics to unlock secrets of nature ranging from dark matter signatures to dynamical principles in consciousness.

Prof. Ranjan Laha receives the 2024 ICTP Prize for his outstanding and wide-ranging work in theoretical particle astrophysics and cosmology. In particular, Laha has invented creative methods to search for various dark matter candidates and signatures of physics beyond the standard model of particle physics. By applying his methods to astrophysical data, such as IceCube neutrinos, Tibet As Experiment gamma rays, Event Horizon telescope images of Sagittarius A*, or the James Webb Space Telescope's high redshift galaxies, he has made a major impact on this important and developing topic.

Prof. Laha will present a talk titled "Theoretical Astroparticle Physics: Discovering the Universe Using Particle Physics and Astrophysics". In this lecture, he will introduce the fascinating field of astroparticle physics and the latest discoveries about the Universe. He will provide insights into some of the research conducted by himself and his collaborators, focusing on dark matter, neutrinos, and other related topics. The talk will conclude with an outlook on how the use of various techniques could pave the way for groundbreaking discoveries in the near future.

Prof. Enzo Tagliazucchi is awarded the 2024 ICTP Prize for his significant insights in human cognition and consciousness based on general theoretical principles, validated on empirical data from neural recordings according to the established standards of cognitive neuroscience. His research provided a quantitative language to address elusive concepts in neuroscience, providing quantitative measures for consciousness based on dynamic principles and on the complexity of models that reproduce data recorded in subjects in different conditions. His research also contributed to Machine Learning and to exploring how socioeconomic conditions may drive pathological neural disorders.

In his presentation titled "Consciousness at the Crossroads of Physics and Neuroscience", Prof. Tagliazucchi will depict how consciousness is an enigmatic phenomenon that can be approached from multiple perspectives. He will argue that various states of consciousness—including wakefulness, sleep, anesthesia, and disorders of consciousness—emerge from complex patterns of interaction within a distributed network of brain regions. As a concrete illustration of the interaction between physics and neuroscience in the research of human consciousness, he will present recent work that combines tools from statistical mechanics and dynamical systems theory with empirical neuroimaging data. This interdisciplinary approach supports changes in the dynamical regime of brain activity across states of consciousness, revealing a low-dimensional structure underlying diverse brain configurations and their mutual transformations. The findings support the development of a theory -and data- driven taxonomy of conscious states, with significant implications for both fundamental and clinical research.

The 2024 ICTP Prize award ceremony will be followed by the Diploma Graduation Ceremony during which the Qaisar and Monika Shafi Prize for the best diploma student of the year will be awarded.

The ceremony is open to all and will be livestreamed on ICTP's YouTube channel.

Light refreshments will be served on the Leonardo Building Terrace after the ceremony.