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