Institute day by day

An agreement between JINR and ANL
of the Republic of Armenia was signed

On 20 March, JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov and Director of the A.Alikhanyan National Laboratory (ANL) Gevorg Qaryan signed an agreement to expand cooperation in the field of fundamental science, information technology, innovation and education. The signing preceded the JINR-ANL workshop that was held on 21 March at MLIT.

"I am very glad that cooperation with the Alikhanyan National Laboratory strengthens and I am confident that this document and the plans that we have discussed will be implemented," Grigory TRUBNIKOV noted. He emphasized that together with the plenipotentiary representative of Armenia at the Joint Institute, extensive work has been carried out over the past two years to expand and strengthen Armenia's participation in JINR scientific projects. The Institute is ready to develop cooperation both with ANL and with other scientific organizations of Armenia, as well as with educational institutions of the republic in the field of personnel training.

"The signing of an agreement to expand cooperation between our organizations is an important step that promises significant results, in particular, in the field of laboratory research using advanced technologies and instruments. We are also convinced that scientific cooperation between our organizations is very important and will pave the way for future initiatives," ANL Director Gevorg QARYAN commented on the signing of the agreement.

JINR Director spoke about the intense work with the Member States, including Armenia. For each Member State, the contact person prepares an analytical report for the year containing a list of activities and key indicators based on the results of cooperation. Each Member State has its own grant programme. The importance of the contribution of responsible cooperation coordinators was noted by Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Higher Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia Artur Movsisyan that was present at the meeting. He said that the international department of the committee also has persons responsible for contacts with JINR.

The Armenian delegation included a leading researcher at the Alikhanyan National Laboratory, a member of the JINR Scientific Council Armen Nersesyan, Head of the JINR Information Centre in Armenia Armen Tumasyan, a senior researcher at VBLHEP, Head of the ANL group in the SPD project Nikolay Ivanov and Head of the national group of Armenia at JINR Edik Hayryan.

On behalf of JINR, the meeting was attended by Vice-Director of the Institute Vladimir Kekelidze, Chief Scientific Secretary of JINR Sergey Nedelko, Deputy Chief Scientific Secretary of JINR Alexey Zhemchugov, Director of the Laboratory of Information Technologies, responsible head for JINR contacts with the Republic of Armenia Sergey Shmatov and Head of the Department of International Cooperation Otilia-Ana Culicov. On the same day, delegates from Armenia visited the Laboratory of High Energy Physics, where they toured the NICA accelerator complex: the synchrophasotron hall, the MPD pavilion, the collider tunnel and the ARIADNA applied research stations.

On 21 March, members of the delegation took part in the JINR-ANL working meeting, where they learnt about the scientific programme of JINR and the Institute's laboratories, as well as presented joint ongoing and scheduled projects.

ANL employees Artur Mkrtchyan and Hamlet Mkrtchyan spoke about the project of an airgel detector for the SPD experiment at the NICA collider. The production of isotopes and measurement of cross sections for nuclear reactions was the subject of Ruben Dallakyan's report. Vachagan Harutyunyan reported on the research of the interaction of neutrons and ions with condensed matter state.

One of the organizers of the meeting from JINR Alexey ZHEMCHUGOV noted: "The meeting, on the one hand, is an attempt to compare notes on those projects where cooperation is already underway, on the other hand, a way to find those areas of common interest where we could do something together." He explained that cooperation between two large organizations in the field of high energy physics has been going on almost since the founding of YerPhI (Yerevan Physical Institute - that was the name of ANL until 2011). ANL mathematicians have never left the close relationship with MLIT. Currently, a group from ANL is extensively involved in the preparation of the SPD experiment and shows interest in the MPD experiment at the NICA complex. A group from ANL has joined the SPD project from the moment the collaboration was developed and participates in data processing, their simulation, as well as in the development of an airgel Cherenkov detector for SPD - together with JINR and the Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS. Other joint projects are also implemented at present, for example, research on isotopes is scheduled with FLNR. In addition, ANL is interested in using JINR neutron beams to meet applied issues in the fields of condensed matter physics, life sciences and materials science.

JINR Press Office