Jubilees

Alexander Ivanovich Malakhov turns 80!

On 1 April, the jubilee of Head of the Department of Heavy Ion Physics of Division No. 2 of VBLHEP, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Professor, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering (Head of the Section “Nuclear Energy”), Full Member of the International Engineering Academy Alexander Malakhov was celebrated.

A.I. Malakhov is a well-known Russian scientist and organizer of scientific research, extensively and fruitfully working in the field of elementary particle physics and relativistic nuclear physics. The results of his many years of activity are well known to the scientific community and have received wide international recognition.

Alexander Ivanovich has been working at the Laboratory of High Energy Physics since 1971, after having graduated from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and having been studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics in Moscow. He was twice elected Director of VBLHEP from 1997 to 2007 by the JINR Scientific Council. In this post, the outstanding abilities of A.I. Malakhov as the organizer of the well-coordinated purposeful work of scientists, specialists and the entire large laboratory staff in focusing on the key task, that is, development of conditions for implementing physical experiments on Nuclotron, as well as the extension and development of the physical research programme in the field of relativistic nuclear physics, were obvious. During these years, despite the lack of the required budget funding, regular sessions of the synchrophasotron and the new Nuclotron superconducting accelerator were carried out, a programme for its development was implemented, unique extracted beams were produced, heavy ions were accelerated, the first experiments with polarized deuteron beams were carried out, an internal target station was developed and put into operation that allowed expanding the possibilities of using Nuclotron beams, several international collaborations were held.

For many years, under the direct supervision or with the active engagement of Alexander Ivanovich, with the wide involvement of scientists from many countries, investigations of the interactions of relativistic nuclei have been carried out at the Nuclotron Accelerator Complex and at the facilities of other scientific centres. He is the leader of the JINR experiment NA61 at CERN, actively participated in the PHENIX experiment at the RHIC BNL complex, was the leader of the theme of developing a new CBM facility at the FAIR complex under construction in Germany. A.I. Malakhov is a co-author of the discovery of the Higgs boson at the CMS facility on LHC at CERN. In the course of these experiments, new results were obtained on the research of the manifestations of quark-gluon degrees of freedom in atomic nuclei in the energies from several hundred MeV to several TeV. A new approach in describing the asymptotic properties of nuclear interactions at high and ultrahigh energies, developed by Alexander Ivanovich together with Academician A.M. Baldin, allowed making a number of essential predictions confirmed by the results of experiments.

A.I. Malakhov pays constant attention to the training of highly qualified scientific personnel. Under his supervision, a number of master's theses have been defended, he advises doctoral students, he has trained a large number of specialists from higher educational institutions in Russia and other countries. A. I. Malakhov has headed the Department of Electronics of Physical Facilities at MIREA and is currently Head of the Department of Physical and Technological Systems at Dubna University.

A.I. Malakhov is the Co-Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the International Conference "Relativistic Nuclear Physics and Quantum Chromodynamics" regularly held at JINR and the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the International Meeting "Relativistic Nuclear Physics: from hundreds of MeV to TeV", held in JINR Member States.

President of the Russian Academy of Sciences G. Ya. Krasnikov is awarding the Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after P. A. Cherenkov to Professor A. I. Malakhov

Alexander Ivanovich is the author and co-author of more than 1,500 scientific publications, as well as the author and co-author of books on the history of JINR: "People of high energies" and "He was always convinced of what he had defended: memories of Academician Alexander Mikhailovich Baldin". He prepared a scientific manual "Relativistic Nuclear Physics". For a long time, he has been a member of the Scientific Council of JINR, Deputy Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Journal “Particles and Nuclei, Letters”, Chairman of the VBLHEP STC and a member of the JINR STC, for a long time, he has been Chairman of the Dissertation Council at VBLHEP JINR. In addition, Alexander Ivanovich is a member of the Dissertation Councils of MLIT and FLNR, a member of the VBLHEP STC. For several years, he has participated in the work of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the physical and technical analysis of energy systems.

For success in scientific and organizational activities, A. I. Malakhov was awarded government awards and honorary badges: Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," II degree, Medal "In memory of the 850th anniversary of Moscow", Medal "Friendship" (Mongolia), Medal "100 years of trade unions of Russia", Medal of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation "For contribution to the implementation of state policy in the field of scientific and technological development", Sign of the Society of Polish-Soviet friendship, Departmental Insignia in the paper "Veteran of nuclear energy and industry". He was awarded the titles "Honorary Employee of JINR", "Honorary Worker of MIREA" and "Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation". He is among the winners of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for "detailed measurements of the properties of the Higgs Boson at the CERN Large Hadron Collider”. In 2023, A. I. Malakhov was awarded the Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after P. A. Cherenkov for a series of investigations in relativistic nuclear physics carried out at JINR and foreign centres and based on the physical programme of the NICA Accelerator Complex. A.I. Malakhov was awarded Honorary Diplomas of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Trade Union and Head of the city of Dubna.

JINR Directorate, VBLHEP, colleagues, friends, students congratulate Alexander Ivanovich Malakhov on his jubilee, wish him good health and success in his work.