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83rd session of the JINR Scientific Council

R E S O L U T I O N

    I. Preamble
    1. Established by the Committee of Plenipotentiaries in 1993 with the aim 
    - to evaluate the results of the scientific activities of the Institute,
    - to draw conclusions on the plans  of  the  scientific  research  of  the 
Institute  submitted  by  its  Director  and   on   the   reports   on   their 
implementation,
    - to work  out  recommendations  on  the  improvement  of  the  scientific 
activities,
    the Scientific Council,  basing  on  its  five-year  experience  of  work, 
considers that its area of activity has been properly defined.
    It feels that its advice given to JINR was appreciated and well taken. Its 
regulations and working mode permitted an important  role  in  furthering  the 
international ties of JINR and in strengthening its scientific  mission.  Even 
more so, the positive and  constructive  atmosphere  which  prevailed  at  the 
sessions of the Scientific Council enabled its members to see  themselves  and 
act as "ambassadors"  of  JINR's  case  within  the  international  scientific 
community.
    Perhaps two recommendations for the future  operation  of  the  Scientific 
Council should be made here. First, closer ties to the work of  the  Committee 
of Plenipotentiaries may be appropriate,  as  all  decisions  made  by  JINR's 
superior governing body are of utmost importance for the  scientific  life  of 
the Institute. Second, a "rolling membership" mode of the  Scientific  Council 
should be considered instead of exchanging all members at once, with a view to 
promoting greater continuity.
    2. The Scientific Council takes note of the concept and  plan  of  reforms 
for JINR in the area of the basic facilities and infrastructure  presented  by 
Director V. Kadyshevsky.
    The Scientific Council strongly supports this important  initiative  taken 
by the Directorate and looks forward to being informed at  its  next  sessions 
about the  implementation  of  these  reforms,  and  about  the  Directorate's 
proposal in the field of scientific research.
    3. The Scientific Council takes note of the information presented  by  the 
Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland A. Hrynkiewicz, Chairman of  the  CP 
Standing Commission for improvement of the scientific and financial policy  of 
JINR and its structure.

    II. Support of JINR
    In view of the unstable financing of JINR, the  Scientific  Council  urges 
the Chairman of the JINR Committee of Plenipotentiaries and  the  Director  of 
JINR to send a  letter  to  the  Prime  Minister  of  the  Russian  Federation 
V. Chernomyrdin  asking for his assistance  to resolve the serious problem  of 
the payment of the Russian Federation's debt to  JINR  for  1996-1997  and  to 
ensure normal financing in 1998.

    III. International Cooperation
    The Scientific Council acknowledges the continued active efforts  made  by 
the JINR Directorate to develop international cooperation. It  takes  note  of 
the importance of The Cooperation Agreement between UNESCO and JINR, signed in 
September 1997, which opens wide possibilities for cooperation between the two 
international organizations in joint scientific and educational programmes.

    IV. Considerations concerning the 3-year Scientific Programme
    1. The Scientific Council, considering its  role  in  the  definition  and 
evaluation of the broad lines of JINR's scientific programme, takes note, with 
satisfaction,  of  the  progress  in  the  implementation  of  the   1997-1999 
Scientific Programme, based on a rolling three-year plan of activities.
    2. The  Scientific  Council  approves  the  general  lines  of  the  "JINR 
Scientific Programme for the years 1998-2000",  and  reiterates  its  standing 
recommendation that the  highest  emphasis  should  be  put  on  the  reliable 
operation of the Institute's  basic  facilities.
    3. Taking  into  account  the  proposals  of  the  Directorate   and   the 
recommendations of the PACs, the Scientific  Council  endorses  the  following 
priority fields of activity in 1998:
    - construction of the Nuclotron beam extraction  system  and  of  external 
beam lines; continuation of the Nuclotron exploitation;  experimental  studies 
of spin degrees of freedom at the Nuclotron, and studies of colour degrees  of 
freedom in nuclear matter at the Nuclotron, at CERN and BNL;
    - realization of the work for the IREN project, with a realistic  schedule 
and an agreed financial envelope, with a view to its completion as rapidly  as 
possible; 
    - upgrade of the IBR-2 reactor, with a  view  to  securing  the  long-term 
future of this facility; completion of the cryogenic moderator; development of 
instrumentation and  data  acquisition  equipment  for  spectrometers  at  the 
reactor; continuation of the spectrometers' exploitation;
    - synthesis of heavy nuclei near the region Z=114, study  of  the  fusion- 
fission reaction for weakly excited superheavy nuclei, study of the  structure 
of light exotic nuclei and neutron correlations in  them,  and  research  with 
beams of stable and radioactive ions using the FOBOS and MULTI  detectors  and 
the High Resolution Beam Line;
    - continued  participation  in  frontier  particle  physics   experiments, 
amongst others at accelerators of IHEP (Protvino), CERN, DESY, BNL  and  FNAL; 
accelerator system R&D for U-600  (IHEP),  LHC  (CERN)  and  linear  colliders 
(TESLA); 
    - theoretical studies in particle physics, nuclear physics, and  condensed 
matter physics, also with a view to  supporting  experimental  work  in  these 
fields;
    - development of JINR's and JINR member-state  institutes'  computing  and 
networking infrastructure, and of communication links.
    4. The Scientific Council takes note of the interest expressed by external 
research groups in the radiobiological studies using the basic  facilities  of 
JINR and recommends that the activities in this field of research be pursued.

    V. On JINR's longer-range plans
    The Scientific Council  followed  with  interest  reports  on  space-based 
cosmic-ray physics studies  and space biology. It  considers  these  areas  of 
research as candidates for future scientific activities. 
    The Scientific Council wishes that the  presentation  of  the  longer-range 
plans be continued at the next sessions.

    VI. Recommendations in connection with the PACs
    1. PAC for Condensed Matter Physics 
    The PAC for Condensed Matter  Physics  expressed  its  concern  about  the 
extremely poor situation with the maintenance and  development  of  the  IBR-2 
reactor. It addressed the CP Standing Commission to confirm that funding  will 
be found for the reactor modernization plan.
    The PAC for Condensed Matter Physics emphasized the  importance  and  high 
professional level of the activity carried out by the  Division  of  Radiation 
and Radiobiological Research.
    The PAC for Condensed Matter recommended  that  several  spectrometers  be 
completed, in particular with position sensitive detectors, in order to  bring 
them to international level.
    The Scientific Council concurs with these concerns and assessments of  the 
PAC for Condensed Matter Physics, and endorses its recommendations.
    2. PAC for Nuclear Physics 
    The PAC for Nuclear Physics recommends that the JINR Directorate:
    - consider all possibilities  for  a  rapid  accomplishment  of  the  IREN 
project. As a first-priority measure, a guaranteed funding of this project  in 
1998 from the JINR Directorate grant and the FLNP budget  should  be  provided 
for construction of vital systems of IREN;
    - consider the problems caused by the outphasing of IBR-30; 
    - solve the problems raised by the difficulty to provide the required beam 
time (about 8000 hrs) to the users of the heavy  ion  accelerator  complex.
    The Scientific Council endorses the recommendations made by  the  PAC  for 
Nuclear Physics as outlined in the Nuclear Physics section of the  rolling  3- 
year Scientific Programme.
    3. PAC for Particle Physics
    The Scientific Council endorses the recommendations made by  the  PAC  for 
Particle Physics on the approval of newly proposed experimental activities and 
on the closure of a number of other activities, as detailed in the minutes  of 
their November 1997 meeting.
    The Scientific Council supports the active efforts of the directorates  of 
JINR and  LCTA  to  establish  a  high-performance  computing  centre  at  the 
Laboratory for providing a full-scale network and informatics support  of  the 
research under way at JINR, with  special  consideration  to  new  large-scale 
experiments that will start taking data in the future.
     4. The  Scientific  Council  appreciates  the  richness  of  the  ongoing 
scientific programme of JINR and the variety of new ideas, which testifies  to 
the impressive range of talents of the  JINR  scientific  staff,  and  to  its 
expertise and intellectual capabilities. However, in  view  of  the  difficult 
economic  situation  of  the  Institute,  efforts  and   resources   must   be 
concentrated on projects where  JINR's  contribution  has  a  clearly  visible 
profile  commensurate  with  its  reputation  as   a   leading   international 
laboratory.

    VII. Membership of the PACs
    1. The Scientific Council supports the Directorate's  proposal  concerning 
regular rotation of the PAC members and suggests that the Regulations for  the 
JINR PACs be reviewed at the next session of the Scientific Council.
    In view of this the Scientific  Council  appoints  upon  proposal  by  the 
Directorate the members of the Programme Advisory Committees (Appendix I)  for 
a term of 1 year only.
    2. The Scientific Council reappoints the following Chairmen  of  PACs  for 
half a year:
    G.J. Deutsch     PAC for Nuclear Physics
    P. Spillantini   PAC for Particle Physics,
and appoints H. Lauter as Chairman of the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics for 
a term of one year.
    3. The  Scientific  Council  considers that the PACs, established at  JINR 
several years ago, have played a valuable role, and thanks all the PAC members 
for the important work they have done.

    VIII. Scientific reports
    The Scientific Council followed with great interest the  reports  made  at 
this session by  the  laureate  of  the  1997  B. Pontecorvo Prize,  Professor 
K. Winter, and by other scientists.

    IX. JINR's prizes
    The Scientific Council approves the Jury's  recommendations  on  the  JINR 
prizes for 1997 (Appendix II).

    X. Nominations
    1. The Scientific Council elected by ballot A. Filippov as Director of the 
Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics (BLTP) for a term of 5 years.
    2. The Scientific Council confirms the vacancies of 2 Deputy Directors  of 
BLTP. The election to these positions shall be held at the 84th session of the 
JINR Scientific Council in June 1998.
    3. The Scientific Council expresses its sincere gratitude  to  Academician 
D. Shirkov for his outstanding contribution to the development of JINR and for 
his most fruitful  activity  as  Director  of  the  Bogoliubov  Laboratory  of 
Theoretical Physics, and encourages the Directorate  to  find  an  appropriate 
recognition.

    XI. Next session of the Scientific Council
    1. The 84th session of the Council will be held on 4-5 June 1998. 
    2. The Scientific Council suggests that the agenda include recruitment  of 
young staff, Educational Programme, Medical  Programme,  and  a  comprehensive 
review of the IREN project.




                                          V. Kadyshevsky
                              Chairman of the JINR Scientific Council

©  Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. Dubna, 1998