From the 21st to the 25th of November at Saint Petersburg State University (SPSU) the 25th Russian nationwide scientific conference on particle accelerators was held, where the leading scientists discussed the main stages of the NICA collider construction. Specialists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, SPSU and other research organizations are going to unite their efforts in order to carry out developments for the new accelerator complex. SPSU also expressed its intention to take part in preparing highly qualified personnel for the project.

The NICA collider is an ambitious project aimed at exploring the properties of baryonic matter and the Quark-Gluon Plasma (a special state of matter in which our Universe stayed during the first moments after the Big Bang). In addition, it is also planned to conduct research in the field of material science, nano- and picotechnologies, medicine, biology, electronics, nuclear power and nuclear safety, cryogenic and superconducting equipment and according to Roscosmos programmes at NICA beams. This is the first large-scale accelerator project which is being implemented on the Russian territory and within the state programme of development of large megascience facilities and involving a wide experimental programme designed for many decades.

For the complex construction, its further operation and conducting research a vast number of specialists is required – top-qualification engineers and scientific personnel. Chairman of the Conference Organizing Committee, prof of SPSU, D. Ovsyannikov told the journalists that a master’s degree programme “Information and Nuclear Technology” is already successfully underway and that same-name department is opening with a base in Dubna, where high-end specialists will be prepared including those for the NICA project.

SPSU has a long history of sending students for internships in Dubna and it is worth mentioning that they have managed to prove themselves academically and personally. Moreover, SPSU scientists are developing software for the nuclotron, which is one of the major elements of the accelerator complex.

Special mention should be made of the fact that SPSU physicists announced they had built a new detector to search for charmed particles for CERN. The technology of radiation-transparent vertex detectors also turned out to be necessary for the NICA collider complex, which is now under construction.

JINR Vice-director and the leader of the NICA project, RAS academician and SPSU professor Grigory Trubnikov noted that such a large-scale project could only be carried out by means of bringing together scientific schools, unique technology manufacturers and leading research centres of our country and of the whole world. This is indeed an international project as today 26 countries are involved in it on the base of JINR in Dubna.

The academician pointed out that among Russian organizations the RAS Institute for Nuclear Research, the National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute” (Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Institute for High Energy Physics, Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute), Rosatom institues, the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics (MSU), the Saint Petersburg State University and the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics are playing a significant role in the project implementation.

The photos were provided by the SPSU press office