Professor Giorgio Ausiello teaches Theoretical Computer Science in one of the oldest Italian Universities (Universita’ ‘La Sapienza’, in Rome). His research area is computational complexity and algorithmics and he is the senior member in the research group on Algorithm Engineering in his University. Starting in the early Seventies he devoted a considerable effort in the promotion of theoretical computer science both in University curricula and at the national and international level. He is one of the founders of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and has been a member of the Council of EATCS almost constantly since its foundation. Recently Giorgio became Editor in Chief of one of the most relevant journals in the field: Theoretical Computer Science, published by Elsevier. He has a wonderful wife doing research in medieval history with whom he plans to write a book on ‘Information processing in the Middle Ages’, sometime in future.

G. Ausiello: TC1 is devoted to Theoretical Foundations of Computer Science. After an experimental phase of six years through a Special Interest Group the TC was established in 1996, relatively recently with respect to the 40 years life of IFIP. Since its foundation a variety of successful initiatives have been undertaken by TC1. The first main direction has led to the creation of seven Working Groups, covering some of the major domains in theoretical computer science: scientific computing, descriptive complexity, algebraic specification of software, computational learning, cellular automata, term rewriting and theoretical foundations of security. All of them have established a network among the members, and beyond, among the scientific community, through the organization of workshops and maintaining newsletters and web sites. Some of the Working Groups provide prize for best papers at conferences, some others have promoted research projects that have subsequently been funded by international organizations, some others produce special issues in scientific journals. The second major initiative taken by TC1 has been starting a world conference in Theoretical Computer Science that is held in correspondence with the IFIP World Congress either independently or as a track in the same congress.

G. Ausiello: In societies that call themselves ‘information societies’, promoting study and knowledge of the principles of computing and of the mathematical grounds on which languages and information systems are developed is, per se, a relevant activity for society. Moreover I would say that most WGs are concerned with aspects of our discipline that have significant societal/economic impact. For example the activities developed in the field of cellular automata have a strong application impact in environmental modeling, in medicine, etc. and this is also true for the study of new specification languages (performed by WG 1.3) and of new security protocols (performed by WG 1.7).

G. Ausiello: I see two main directions of activity that should receive greater attention in the future years and IFIP should play on this ground a major role among other international organizations. The first is concerned with the so-called North-South divide. Information technology can greatly help developing countries to improve their economic systems and their societies. To this aim, applications in medicine, agriculture, transportation systems not to speak about e-learning and e-government may be crucial. On the other side I feel that also the industrialized world should find new development models that are ‘sustainable’, that is compatible with limited resources, on one side, and with the need to reduce, rather then increase, the North-South divide. Also in this respect information technology can help by supporting environmental sciences, economic modeling, resource management optimization etc.

Incidentally, I think that the current trend by which the young generations seem to abandon scientific studies should be reversed. The negative aspects of our technologically advanced societies (waste of resources, environmental problems, genetic risks etc.) should be fought by means of a more focused use of science not by ‘less science’. IFIP might help in this respect by promoting scientific studies (computer science studies ‘in primis’) among new generations.