The friendship of sciences has received a new impetus

On 20 November, during a joint meeting of the Scientific Council of MSU and JINR, a cooperation agreement was signed. The document was signed by JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov and MSU Director Viktor Sadovnichy. The agreement expands interaction between the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and Lomonosov Moscow State University in a number of areas of development of cooperation in the educational field, in the joint implementation of scientific projects and the joint use of IT infrastructure, as well as provides for the rapid development of the MSU branch in Dubna.

JINR and MSU have long-standing and close scientific and educational ties. Many of the founding fathers of JINR graduated from Moscow State University and were university professors, including taking part in the activities of the SINP MSU branch in Dubna (1961-2015). Leading MSU scientists are members of the JINR Scientific Council and Programme Advisory Committees of the Institute. In 2022, the opening of a branch of MSU in Dubna was held - two departments started to work with renewed vigor, where more than 30 students currently study: the Department of Elementary Particle Physics (headed by JINR Scientific Leader Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Victor Matveev) and Fundamental and Applied Nuclear Physics (headed by JINR Director Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov).

In accordance with the agreement, joint research on the physics of elementary particles and the atomic nucleus, the physics of condensed matter will be carried out using nuclear physics methods. Joint research on astrophysics, radiobiology and ecology will also be developed. Cooperation in the field of telecommunications infrastructure and information technologies will also be strengthened and grid segments of JINR and Moscow State University will be developed. Viktor Sadovnichy said that the potential of the new MGU-270 supercomputer will be used to solve joint issues.

Plans for the development of the Moscow State University branch in Dubna were presented to the Scientific Council of Moscow State University by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov. "Currently, we have two departments and our plans are to at least double their number. The Department of Big Data and Computing is ready to open, we have almost completed the development of educational programmes," JINR Director said. He expressed confidence that the future department as part of the Dubna branch, the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics (CMC) of Moscow State University and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Informatics of the Moscow State University branch in Sarov will together form a complementary ecosystem that will be able to adopt a joint educational plan and set practical tasks for both Sarov and for the Dubna students. According to Grigory Trubnikov, the second department, Radiobiology and Radiochemistry is expected to open in the 2024-2025 academic year as an educational area at the intersection of several sciences. The department will be established in cooperation with the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University.

JINR Director thanked Viktor Sadovnichy and his colleagues for their support in organizing the work of the branch - from the decision to establish to obtaining licenses and admitting the first students. Grigory Trubnikov presented Viktor Sadovnichy with a mantle and a diploma of an honorary doctor of JINR. The decision to confer this title was made by the Scientific Council of the Institute in September.

Rector of Moscow State University Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Viktor Sadovnichy said that the agreement signed between the two scientific organizations is intended to intensify joint scientific and educational activities on the basis of the Moscow State University branch. "The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and Moscow University are leaders in fundamental research in the field of nuclear physics and related fields of natural sciences. We are related with a long history of cooperation, at the origins of which outstanding Russian physicists stood, these are professors at Moscow State University, as well as with the future - the branch of Moscow University in Dubna, founded last year. Our common task is to ensure national technological development, to implement breakthrough scientific research and to train highly professional personnel for this. The signing of the agreement is a historical event," Viktor Sadovnichy commented. He noted that one of the important reasons for signing an agreement with JINR is the efforts of MSU to develop the Innovation Scientific and Technological Centre "Vorobievy Gory", where high-tech companies in cooperation with MSU scientists will implement applied projects in the most advanced areas of science.

Deputy Director of the MSU branch in Dubna Alexander Olshevsky in his speech focused on the efficiency of the education obtained within the walls of the MSU branch in Dubna: during the period from 1963 to 2015, more than 70 percent of graduates, including from JINR Member states, received jobs in their specialty as at JINR and in other scientific centres. From 2019 to 2023, 49 masters were trained. More than half of them have gone into science, while a third consists of employees of the Institute's laboratories. "JINR's extensive scientific programme requires a much broader approach to education. Therefore, the fundamental task of the branch since 2022 has been to cooperate not only with the physics department, but also with other faculties of Moscow State University. First of all, taking into account historical ties, we work with the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics; we are confident that soon not only this specialization, but also many others will be presented here in Dubna," Alexander Olshevsky said.

JINR Scientific Leader Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Victor Matveev reminded that since the 1960s, more than 1200 undergraduate and graduate students have been trained at the Dubna branch that have become the basis of the personnel potential of JINR and its Member States that has contributed to the strengthening and development of international cooperation with these States. "The union of science and education implemented in Dubna has proven its efficiency. There is no doubt about the success of further strengthening creative scientific and educational ties between MSU and JINR on the basis of the branch in Dubna," he emphasized. In addition, based on the lectures given at the branch, a large number of monographs, textbooks and manuals have been published that have become widely known and are still relevant to this day. "Students' communication with world-class scientists and carrying out scientific work at advanced scientific facilities is the most serious motivation for young people to get involved in science today," Victor Matveev stated.

Senior researcher at the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics Wael Badawi spoke about the JINR educational programme, implemented in various forms - student internships and trainings, programmes for young scientists presented at the JINR University Centre and at 13 JINR basic departments in six Russian universities, as well as at sites of 11 information centres of the Institute in many regions of Russia and a number of other JINR Member States. "Despite the fact that the main activity of JINR is scientific research, great attention is paid to the issue of training personnel for the Member States," he noted and cited some figures. Representatives from more than 30 countries have participated in international student programmes over the past 20 years, with more than 300 students trained in the programmes each year. 363 people currently prepare dissertations at various levels at the JINR base.

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The delegation of the Joint Institute at the joint meeting of the Scientific Council of MSU and JINR was represented by about fifty JINR staff members, including Directors of the Institute's laboratories and scientists involved in joint projects and research - representatives of Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Egypt and Kazakhstan.

Information is prepared according to the JINR Press Office