In the wake of the departed

Grigory Domogatsky 15.01.1941-17.12.2024

We are deeply saddened to report the sudden death of our dear colleague, wise mentor Grigory Domogatsky. His passing was a heavy blow to the entire scientific community.

Grigory Domogatsky was the permanent leader, ideological inspirer and organizer of his main brainchild - the deep-sea neutrino telescope on Lake Baikal. This unique experiment that captivated many of us with its beauty, grandeur, romance and scientific potential, became the destiny of many generations of physicists and engineers.

Having begun his work on this project back in 1980 at the suggestion of academicians M.A.Markov and A.E.Chudakov, Grigory Domogatsky demonstrated outstanding qualities: the ability to inspire colleagues, systematicity, integrity and depth of approach to meeting scientific, technological and organizational issues, as well as incredible fortitude and persistence in achieving the goal. It was these qualities that allowed the construction of the world's first deep-sea neutrino telescope NT200 to begin and to be completed in the most difficult days for the country. For decades, he personally supervised the work on the ice and the preparation of the experiment throughout the year.

A new stage in the development of the telescope started in 2013-2014 with development of the Baikal-GVD (Gigaton Volume Detector) facility, the name of which his colleagues associated with his name with respect and warmth - Grigory Vladimirovich Domogatsky. What started more than forty years ago as a daring dream has become a reality in the form of the largest neutrino telescope in the Northern Hemisphere - an instrument that our entire country is proud of. The new telescope has already brought and still brings the most important scientific results, revealing the secrets of the structure of the Universe and its evolution.

Grigory Vladimirovich was the leader of this outstanding project until the last days of his life. His departure is an irreparable loss for the international Baikal-GVD collaboration and world science. We are obliged to do everything possible so that the life's work of an outstanding scientist will develop and bring new scientific discoveries in future.

Directorate and staff of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research express their deep condolences to the family, friends and colleagues on the death of the Soviet and Russian scientist, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of High-Energy Neutrino Astrophysics at the INR RAS, a close and kind person to us Grigory Domogatsky.