The first  meeting of the International Advisory Committee of the School of Physics of IPM was held on Saturday 15^th of April at IPM. It included meeting with the Director of IPM Dr. Larijani, and a meeting with the academic council of the School of Physics of IPM.
     The agenda of the meeting were to draft a series of recommendations to the director, for future development of the school, and a concise evaluation of its research status.         
     Also the winner of the "IPM-Mansouri String Prize for a Young Iranian String Theorist" was chosen in this meeting and announced on 17^th April; awarded by Dr. Larijani during the 2006 annual string school of IPM (ISS2006).
     The idea of formation of a scientific consultative body had been envisioned from the very inception of IPM in 1989. However, the school of Physics had to develop to an extent that it could effectively profit from such a body.
     At last during The String 2004 Conference in Paris in a meeting of Farhad Ardalan and Hessamaddin Arfaei of IPM with Cumrun Vafa, the renowned Harvard string theorist, in which Spenta Wadia of Tata institute, a stead fort supporter of physics at IPM, participated, formation of the scientific advisory body, was launched.
     In subsequent negotiations with the Director of IPM Dr. Larijani, and members of the Scientific Council of the School of Physics of IPM the idea of the International Advisory Committee was approved. Upon consent of  candidates of the committee the following were appointed in 2005 by the Director of IPM. (In counter clockwise geographic order):

Ashoke Sen of Harish-Chandra Research Inst, India
Alexander Belavin of Landau Institute, Russia
John Ellis of Cern, Switzerland
Werner Nahm of DIAS, Ireland
Robert Brandenberger of McGill U., Canada
Cumrun Vafa of Harvard U., USA
Farhad Ardalan of IPM, Iran

left to right: Ashoke Sen, Werner Nahm, Alexander Belavin, Robert Brandenberger, Mohammad Javad Larijani, John Ellis, Farhad Ardalan

 Members of the Committee are long time associates and collaborators of IPM Physics and  by and large have had first hand knowledge of its workings and have contributed to its excellence over the years.