IFSAP mission is to train young physicists in Advances of Physics and Trends in Physics Research and catalyse collaboration in new research directions.

NEW IMPORTANT STEP IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS

In September 1-15, 1991 the first session of the UNESCO St.Petersburg International School of Physics took place in Repino, a small resort near St.Petersburg. The topic of the School was "High Energy Physics. The Standard Model and Beyond". The School was started as a cooperative program of the American Physical Society and the USSR Physical Society under the Auspices of UNESCO. Leningrad State University acted as a host.
The aim of the School was to provide exceptionally talented young research physicists with opportunities for interacting with senior research physicists and young physicists from other countries.
The School consisted of series of lectures, tutorials and technical seminars designed to broaden participants' understanding of the fundamental physics underlying their own specialization, connect them with research carried in other countries, introduce them to the world community of physics and thus promote East-West research collaboration as means of advance progress in physics.

After the 1991, seven more yearly sessions followed until 1998:
II School (1992) - "Condensed Matter Problems"
III School (1993) - "Quantum Optics" and the International Workshop "Scalar Mesons"
IV School (1994) - "Field-Theoretical Methods"
V School (1995) - " Mesons and diquarks "
VI School (1996) - " Condensed Matter Physics" with emphasis on "Surface Phenomena"
VII School (1997) - " Solitons in Physics "
VIII School (1998) - "Quantum Theory (in honor of V.A.Fock) "
IX School (2000) - "Extended Quantum Objects"
X School (2001) -"Methods of Theoretical Physics and Models of Reality"
XI School (2002) - "Quantum Anomalies in Hadron and Condensed Matter Physics"

412 young physicists and 131 lecturers participated in these Schools. They represented 26 countries, including 8 countries of CIS, all 3 Baltic states, 10 countries of Europe outside former USSR, as well as from USA, Canada, India, Israel, Argentine and Australia.

The problem of young people in physics research and decline of inflow of talents was carefully discussed at the VIIIth School , during the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth date of V.A.Fock , attended by many outstanding scientists. It was noted that physics students and postgraduates who do not continue their career in physics research are coming mostly from uiversities of high standing where training is of higher quality and students body is of higher intellectual level. Young physicists at such universities are more eagerly invited to information technology career, banks etc, where salaries are several times higher.

The experience gained in 8 Schools and changes in the world of Physics have shown it clear that the International School has proved its worth. In honour of Fock the International School of Physics has been renamed IFSAP - the International V.A.Fock School for Advances in Physics and Trends in Physics Research. The first V.Fock School (#9 in series of Schools) was opened by the Welcome address of UNESCO

Vladimir A. Fock
Vladimir A. Fock was a great physicist , mathematician and teacher of encyclopedic standing whose 100th anniversary of the birth date in 1998 gave an initial momentum to IFSAP. Fundamental theoretical discoveries of Fock constitute a part of Physics.
UNESCO recognized special significance of Fock contribution to Civilization by including the Fock Centennial in the UNESCO List of Anniversaries for 1998-1999. Life and scientific activity of V.Fock were associated with St.Petersburg and St.Petersburg University, where he was Professor of Theoretical Physics in 1932-1974.

Portrait of Fock
Fock left fundamental contributions in mathematics, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, radio-physics, geo-physics, optometry. His name is associated with the Fock space, Hartri-Fock method, introduction of gauge transfomations, equations of motion in gravity, the Dirac equation in gravitational field, Dirac-Fock-Podolski formalism, Klein-Fock-Gordon equation, proper time formalism, symmmetry of hydrogen atom and dynamical symmetry etc.
V.A. Fock Department of Theoretical Physics at St.Petersburg State University is a base for IFSAP.

WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO KNOW ADVANCES AND TRENDS IN PHYSICS

Physics and the needs of mankind. It is almost trivial to assert that Advances of Physics enrich our understanding of laws of Nature and provide the basis for new technologies and that studying Advances we are able to discern Trends in Physics research and applications and thereby reorient research priorities. Such a statement was true already a hundred years ago and now it can be repeated in superlative. At present, research in physics and its applications strongly influence our life and thinking and a ar closely related to the needs of mankind.
During last decades Physics and High technologies based on Physics discoveries made a spectacular progress . People got accustomed that nuclear power is now a part of their life in different ways - as electricity, in military, political and ecological aspects.
Communication technologies with PC's and Internet entered family life and became indispensible for hundreds millions of people. New communication devices were initiated by discoveries in the Condensed Matter Physics; email and Internet were started by physicists at CERN. Research trends show that quantum computers and millipede storage might begin a new step, even new era, in this field.
Curiosity-driven Physics research got astonishing achievements too. It was found what are the laws in the world of elementary particles at low energies and how properties of elementary particles determine important features of cosmology, including after- Big Bang behaviour of Universe. This was certainly an extraordinary contribution to Civilisation.

Research in areas of extreme conditions and large-scale facilities. The scope of phenomena under investigation of modern Physics is much larger than some decades ago. The scope is extending due to new possibilities to create such conditions in laboratories, as well as to use cosmic space. Most interesting discoveries come from investigations in areas of extreme conditions. New technique has made accessible areas of high and low temperatures, extreme electric and magnetic fields, ultra-long or ultra-short intervals of time, very high and very low energies. The study of the behaviour of matter under these extreme conditions has proved to be of the greatest importance and has in some cases given rise to immediate applications. Modern amplification devices like photomultipliers and very high-energy condensing mirrors has made possible the detection of extremely low energies in electromagnetic radiation (light , radio waves) and extended range of radio-astronomy. Due to new amplification devices one can study production of energy by individual cells and even cell constituents. The potential for advances is enormous.

Physics as a basis for advances in other sciences. Learning Physics helps to develop ability to think methodically and make exact measurements. Methods of Theoretical Physics have been shown to be quite universal. They teach how to treat a phenomenon and construct a theoretical model by separating main and secondary features of a phenomenon , introducing proper variables in an appropriate abstract space with corresponding dynamics. They were succesfully applied in Chemistry, Life sciences, Economics, Finances and problems of Social sciences. New areas of physics such as medical physics and environmental physics are on the way to recognition at the same footing as chemical physics or geo-physics.

Why it is so important to have International Schools for Advances in Physics? The growth and departmentalisation of Physics. The number of scientific publications in Physics is growing exponentially and doubled in two last decades. It reflects the increase in the scope of Physics activities, including number of researchers. Exchange of scientific information became almost immediate because of computerized archives and Internet. Physics-related preprint archives announce more than 800 papers per month. Certainly, not all of these papers are on a Nobel-prize level. In addition, there are many papers sent to publication without announcing preprints in archives, while papers on applications development may remain unpublished . The structure of Science in 2000 is quite different from that in 1950. One can observe process of over-specialization of disciplines: Physics is in a state of creating new subdisciplines; areas of research developing according to different internal logic become soon quite distinct and form a separate field of research, or a subdiscipline. Old subdivision of Physics into Condensed Matter, Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics etc. is obsolete now. The number of scientific journals is growing, as well as the number of archives sections. The research worker has increasing difficulties to keep abreast of events in his own research subject. At the same time, this tendency has led to a complementary process of interdisciplinary synthesis and given rise to series of new sciences with complex names - physical mathematics, astrophysics, biophysics, physico-chemical biology, etc.

International School of Physics IFSAP Bringing young people to frontiers of Physics is a task of first priority. Ideally, good universities give graduates a solid knowledge of modern physics and ,later,a deeper understanding of one field during post-graduate studies. Young postdocs and not-so-young scientists who were involved in research in own specific areas need to update their qualification at wider scale. They need to discuss with colleagues and senior researchers and be able to argue presenting their papers to specialised audience.Young physicists need both - critical perusal of their work and recognition. To present recent advances in Physics to young physicist and make them learn new methods of Theoretical Physics means to equip them for succesful quest for new discoveries and high technologies.

IFSAP aims at bringing young postdocs to frontiers of Physics in the most economic and compressed manner.
IFSAP sessions of two-week duration are held once in a calendar year. Session topics are changed from year to year in order to cover most important Advances. The Program of a session includes lecture courses, seminars of perticipants and tutorials. A session may be accompanied by a Workshop related to a particular chapter of the session Program. Exceptionally talented young physicists come to IFSAP for such sessions to attend courses on recent advances and current research trends, present their papers at seminars and participate at seminar and out-of-door discussions.

In 1991-1997 and 2000 IFSAP was supported by UNESCO Division of Mathematics, Physical and Chemical Sciences, in 1998, 2001, 2002 IFSAP was supported by the UNESCO Office for Science cooperation in Europe (ROSTE). IFSAP receives also grants of RFBR.