For the wake of the departed

Alexander Mikhailovich Taratin 14.11.1950 – 27.04.2026

The famous physicist, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, the winner of the State Prize of the Russian Federation Alexander Mikhailovich Taratin passed away. He has worked at VBLHEP since 1991. He dedicated all his scientific activity to research in the field of physics of the interaction of beams of high-energy charged particles with crystals.

Alexander Mikhailovich started his career in 1974 after having graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Technology of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute. Later, he graduated from a graduate school. In 1981, he defended his PhD thesis and in 1997 - his Doctoral thesis on the topic "Investigation of channeling in a curved crystal and its use in the extraction of beams of high-energy charged particles from accelerators". The papers of A.M. Taratin were highly appreciated in the scientific community, in 1996, he was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation as a member of the team of authors for developing new techniques for the control of high-energy particle beams on accelerators using curved crystals and their implementation.

Subsequently, with the active participation of Alexander Mikhailovich, various investigations were carried out on the beams of U-70 accelerators (IHEP Protvino), Nuclotron (JINR), SPS and LHC (CERN, Switzerland), Tevatron (FNAL, USA), in which priority scientific results were obtained that found practical application. So, in experiments on Nuclotron, it was possible for the first time to observe and study parametric X-rays during the interaction of relativistic nuclei with crystals and on SPS, the effect of volumetric reflection of particles using a curved crystal, predicted by him as a co-author earlier, was experimentally discovered and studied. Since 2008, A.M. Taratin has been Head of the UA9 experiment on SPS from JINR, the recent results of these investigations were published in 2024.

Alexander Mikhailovich Taratin was a highly erudite, creative specialist able to organize effective fruitful work, his papers are widely known in the world scientific community.

The bright memory of Alexander Mikhailovich will forever live in the memory of his colleagues and friends.