Youth and Science

JINR brings universities together

In November, 18 students from Egyptian universities started their international student practice at JINR. During excursions to the Laboratories, they learnt about the NICA complex, the Govorun supercomputer, the NOvA collaboration control panel, as well as about the other JINR basic facilities at an interactive exhibition in the Cultural Centre "Mir", visited Dubna University and went to Moscow. The rest of the time, the students worked on educational and research projects under the supervision of laboratory staff.

On 22 November, the third stage of the international student practice ended with students reporting on the papers they had completed. Some students and their project supervisors shared their impressions of the past practice.

A.S.Selyunin (DLNP): I am one of the project supervisors of "Current photodetectors and their applications", the main curator is N.V.Anfimov. Our group deals with photodetectors and their use in elementary particle physics and other fields. Samir Hasanen chose the project in our group and spent almost two weeks in our staff. We gave him an introductory lecture on the physics of photodetectors, told him about vacuum photomultipliers, but focused more on current photodetectors, the so-called silicon photomultipliers. He learnt about some experimental data, electronics and software. Samir was an active student, studying the matter we provided him in parallel with the lectures.

Samir Hasanen (University of Damanhur, in photo): I have studied photomultiplier tubes, silicon photomultipliers and their applications. They are capable of registering single photons that is not an easy task and more often high luminosities are registered. I am a master's student, working as an assistant in the physics department and in my master's thesis, I research the whole range of optoelectronics, from electrical engineering to photomultiplier tubes. The knowledge I have gained here will be used when I return to Egypt to work on nanophotonics. I hope to return here to prepare and defend my PhD thesis in the field of photodetectors.

V.V.Lobachev (FLNP): Our Sector is engaged in interdisciplinary research of cultural heritage using neutron activation analysis. The academic project "Nuclear and related analytical techniques in archaeological and ecological research" is supervised by A.Yu.Dmitriev and W.Badawi. I helped students Minna and Nura a little. They went through the entire path of training in neutron activation analysis, including sample preparation, irradiation, registering induced activity spectra, their processing and obtaining mass fractions of elements. I think they have gained serious experience and they have succeeded to fit quite a lot of work into a ten-minute report that is very good. They spoke and answered questions very confidently. It is due to Wael Badawi and Andrey Yurievich that presented the matter to them well.

Minna Elnomeni (Minoufia University): The topic of the project was in my specialty, I am a biologist, specializing in the area between biology and neutron activation analysis, I am engaged in determining the concentrations of heavy metals and their impact on tissues and organs. The practice was very useful for me. We would like to come back here to carry out small projects.

Nura Magdy Saleh (Damanhur University): I am a physicist and this project turned out to be a very interesting application that I can use in my field of expertise in the future. Returning to JINR would be very interesting for me.

Bijan Saha (MLIT): In our project with Viktor Rikhvitsky "Late-time acceleration and the role of dark energy: theoretical and numerical solutions", the two students Rifat Mohammed and Rahim Hussain were involved in the theoretical research. We considered the Feynman diagram and compared experimental data with theoretical results. We had to introduce to the students the theoretical foundations required for studying this issue; such as, they had not studied General Relativity. Of course, the practice is too short, especially, when something has to be explained from scratch. I have offered my help: if they wish to move forward in this topic, we can keep in contact and work together in future.

Does the popularity of the JINR practice grow among Egyptian students year after year? I asked the practice supervisor Professor Mona El-Naa (Egypt):

- Yes, the popularity has increased over the years, the number of people wishing to participate grows every year and the number of applications also increases.

And does the number of universities participating in this practice also increase?

- We can say that the number of universities increases, yet the number of students is about the same from year to year, since the organizing committee primarily focuses on the level of preparation of students.

Do you follow the further scientific fate of former participants of the practice?

- Yes, we keep in contact with them. It should be noted that participation in this practice gives a powerful start in a scientific career, some preferences in the future. Students having participated in these practices return to JINR or start working in other research organizations. We can say that this practice has a positive effect on the further career of students.

Would you like to suggest any changes to the practice programme?

- I would like to see its duration increased, the number of research projects expanded so that more students that are engaged in various fields of science could be involved in this programme.

And the students already make their own innovations: one of the student reports ended with this version of the Joint Institute slogan "Science brings nations together" - "JINR brings universities together".

Olga TARANTINA,
translated by Elena KARPOVA and Alexander SELYUNIN,
photo by Elena PUZYNINA