In the wake of the departed

Valery Mitsyn (19.01.1953 - 31.12.2025)

On 31 December, 2025, Valery Valentinovich Mitsyn, a senior researcher at the Department of External Communications and Distributed Information Systems of the Meshcheryakov Laboratory of Information Technologies passed away. Was not a scientist with a world fame that had invested a lot of effort and knowledge in the development of the JINR grid infrastructure.

After having graduated from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University in 1975, Valery Valentinovich worked for two years as an engineer at the Design Bureau "Mashinostroenie" in Miass, later, a year - at the Research Institute "Atoll". Since 1978, he had worked as an engineer, a junior researcher and a senior researcher at the All-Union Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF).

Valery Valentinovich's scientific activity at JINR started in 1989 as a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Computer Engineering and Automation. Valery Valentinovich became the main system administrator of the VAX cluster, was engaged in the introduction of advanced network protocols and technologies (ETHERNET, DECnet, TCP/IP). He played a leading role in the development and implementation of UNIX operating systems (SUNOS, Solaris, DUNIX, HP-UX, AIX, ConvexOS, FreeBSD, LINUX) and of the related software in JINR. Since that time, he had become the face of everything new that happened in the field of computing at the Institute.

Valery Valentinovich was a high-qualified unique specialist in various fields of advanced information and network technologies (hardware properties of computers, operating systems, networks and information protection, programming languages, mass memory systems, applied mathematical support). His high professional erudition has always been indispensable in organizing and implementing many Russian and international projects with the participation of JINR, in which Valery Valentinovich was involved both as an expert, as a leader and as a leading performer.

He played a key role in the implementation of many European and Russian projects for the development of grid technologies: EU DATAGRID, EGEE (Enabling Grids for E-science), WLCG, RDIG (Russian Data Intensive Grid). He was a participant in the project "Development of a prototype of a new generation basic grid services centre for intensive activities with distributed data at the federal level", carried out within the framework of the federal targeted scientific and technical programme "Research and development in priority areas of development of science and technology" for 2002-2006, the leading executor of the Dubna-Grid project included in the Dubna Science City programme, the goal of which was to unite Dubna's computing and information resources based on metacluster and grid technologies. With his direct participation, the project of the Federal Agency for Science and Innovation of the Russian Federation "Development of a computer system for the development of the RuTier-2/RDIG grid complex for analysis by Russian institutes of distributed data for the Large Hadron Collider within the framework of the global grid system WLCG/EGEE", the project of the Federal Agency for Science and Innovation of the Russian Federation "GridNNS - National Nanotechnology Network", the European project EGI-InSPARE, the programme for the development of the Russian grid network of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, the projects of the federal target programme of the Ministry of Science and Education of the Russian Federation "Model of a distributed collective use system for acquisition, transmission and processing of ultra-large amounts of data based on grid technologies for the NICA Accelerator Complex" and "Development of an automated data processing system for experiments at the Tier-1 Large Hadron Collider and the provision of grid services for distributed analysis of these data" were implemented.

The focus of Valery Valentinovich was on organizing computing at JINR for physical experiments, especially, for such as ALICE, CMS, ATLAS and in these investigations, his participation was decisive. Valery Valentinovich played a leading role in the successful work of the data processing and storage centre for the Tier-1 CMS experiment in MLIT. Thanks to Valery Valentinovich, the Tier-1 data processing and storage centre at JINR from year to year had a leading place among the world centres of this level. Under V.V. Mitsyn, in recent years, a monitoring and control centre for the Multifunctional Information and Computing Complex (MICC) has been established. Valery Valentinovich was the main performer of work on three components of MICC in JINR MLIT - Tier-1 and Tier-2 grid sites and EOS-based data storage systems. He is the author and co-author of more than 195 papers in peer-reviewed journals and articles in scientific collections and periodicals.

The fruitful work of Valery Valentinovich Mitsyn was awarded well-deserved awards - the Medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, the Departmental Insignia in the paper "Veteran of Nuclear Energy and Industry", the Certificate of Honor of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, a letter of thanks from the Governor of the Moscow Region, he was awarded the title "Honorary Employee of JINR". In 2013, V.V. Mitsyn, as a member of a team of authors, was awarded the first JINR Prize for the paper "JINR grid environment - an element of the Russian and global grid infrastructure" and in 2021 - the second prize for the paper "Development and implementation of unified access to heterogeneous distributed resources of JINR and Member States on the DIRAC platform". Last year, Valery Valentinovich won the Breakthrough Prize 2025 in fundamental physics for his paper based on data from the second stage of LHC (LHC RUN2).

Valery Valentinovich's exceptional exactingness towards himself, tireless performance, amazing knowledge of all aspects of the computer centre and a friendly attitude towards colleagues, constant striving for new things always aroused the admiration of colleagues and friends. Valery Valentinovich enjoyed well-deserved authority and respect not only in JINR, but also in Russian and foreign scientific centres.

The magnificent, talented scientist, kind-hearted and reliable person passed away. Valery Valentinovich left a deep mark on science and a bright memory for everyone who worked with him, was friends with him or just talked to him. His kind humor, wise advice and criticisms will be sorely missed.

MLIT Directorate, the laboratory staff express their sincere condolences to the family and friends of Valery Valentinovich Mitsyn. The bright memory of a wonderful person, an amazing specialist, a wise friend and a colleague will always be with us.