Conferences

MCE-2024: return of traditions

Ending. Starts at No. 6, 8, 10

In conclusion, there is a traditional interview with the Chairman of the Conference Organizing Committee professor of the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University Galina Riznichenko.

What is the secret of success and undying interest in the Conference?

- My employees once told me: why to make it so wide? It is necessary to hold a highly specialized one. I think it is wrong. There are biophysical congresses and professional conferences in this area. The peculiarity of our Conference is its interdisciplinarity; it gives a very wide scope for organization. We had a wonderful round table for the anniversary of A.S.Pushkin. Professor of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University M.Yu.Sidorova is very active, we have been collaborating for several years. She has a lot of different ideas, she attracts students. I think this is a very good, lively current in our Conference.

The Conference was registered at the university. How do you like it here?

- S.V.Potemkina (ISAU Dubna University) works extremely hard, she has everything clearly organized, she has involved volunteer children, there is an online broadcast - all these are very important components of the Conference. When everything works smoothly - it seems like it should be, as soon as some kind of glitch appears - there is no key to the lecture hall, the equipment does not turn on, or something else, you immediately notice it. T.Yu.Plyusnina (MSU) took on a large amount of organizational work; I was sick a lot this year.

I like that the members of Directorate from JINR D.V.Kamanin and A.N.Bugay were extensively involved in the work of the Conference. I want this relationship is preserved. A.N.Bugay promised to come to biologists in Pushchino: it is important if a new relationship is developed between biologists.

Director of the UC D.V.Kamanin and G.Yu.Riznichenko	Director of LRB A.N.Bugay

When the Conference worked only in a remote format, it lost something. Our main task is contact between people, establishing not just business, but human relationships. The person then uses these relationships throughout his life. Where do opponents, reviewers, scientific supervisors come from? These are people you met at conferences back in the day. Moreover, it is very important that people of different generations meet here. When we started the MCE, indisputable authorities, academicians spoke to us, so people came to us.

Academicians speak nowadays...

- And now. When we started, there were few conferences at all. And there was no money. People came to it with a supply of lard, food and settled in the cheapest places in the hostel. Today, they are unhappy when there are not enough single rooms in a hotel, they eat in a restaurant. Nevertheless, the MCE has survived, although there are a lot of professional conferences at present.

It is still democratic, teachers still participate, although before there were more of them.

- We had grant support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, this small amount of help was enough to publish theses and something else. And today, neither the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, nor the Russian Science Foundation provide support for conferences; all expenses come only from registration fees. Thanks to our wonderful hosts in Dubna and Pushchino for not paying rent. There is no longer a hotel in Pushchino and last year, we held the Conference remotely. The remote format is good for specialized conferences with participants in different cities, but here, a meeting of friends and professionals is held. Today, G.T.Guria (Research Medical Centre for Hematology) has given a simply brilliant report "Dynamic effects in the processes of activation of intravascular coagulation" and this research is of great practical importance, because so many people are on dialysis!

* * *

The Conference ended with a memorial session "Participant. Scientist. Teacher" on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the birth of Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, founder of synergetics in Russia S.P.Kurdyumov. Sergey Pavlovich was very warmly remembered by G.G.Malinetsky that worked under his supervision at the IPM (S.P.Kurdyumov headed the institute from 1989 to 1999) and G.Yu.Riznichenko that started the MCE conferences with him. He once told her: "Galochka, promise me that you won't give up this business."

"And I hope that young colleagues will not give up this business when I can no longer do this and the Conference will continue," Galina Riznichenko concluded the Conference.

What kind of amazing conference is this, MCE? Here, architects talk about the social crisis and experts in mathematical economics use the golden ratio, students and academics speak at it and you never know how it will surprise you next year.

From Conference reports

...in the brain there is a huge expenditure of ATP (adenosine triphosphoric acid is a universal source of energy for all biochemical processes occurring in living systems). The number of ATP molecules that a person weighing 70 kg synthesizes and spends on vital activity during the day is 50 kg!

...in biophysics they say: a macromolecule has "purposeful" behavior that has developed over millions of years of evolution.

...every third citizen of the Moscow region is part of the pendulum labor migration, in which a person works in Moscow and lives in the region.

...the best studied economic history that sometimes produces unexpected results. An analysis of US agricultural productivity in the mid-19th century showed that the farms of planters in the South that used mass slave labor, turned out to be significantly more efficient than the free farms of the North.

Olga TARANTINA,
photo by Elena PUZYNINA