On 26 March, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research celebrated its 67th anniversary. This year, several events were held to mark the Institute’s Foundation Day. The day before, a new building of the JINR University Centre was inaugurated. The culmination of the holiday was a festive concert at the JINR Cultural Centre “Mir”, at which Russian, regional, and departmental awards were presented to the Institute’s employees. The event also included the awarding of the JINR 2023 Grants to Dubna teachers.

Exhibitions, concerts, meetings, sports games, and quests in March were dedicated to the 67th anniversary of the Institute. From 20 to 24 March, the exhibition “JINR main facilities” opened for all the citizens of the science city on the second floor of the Cultural Centre “Mir”. The guided tours were conducted by appointment. On 23 March, the JINR Universal Public Library hosted a family concert of JINR staff members and students of the Dubna Children’s Music School. On 24 March, the traditional family gatherings of “Let’s READers” took place at Blokhinka. The festive meeting was dedicated to Vietnam, one of the Member States of the Institute. On the afternoon of 25 March, a family quest along the streets named after scientists took place. On 26 March, the XXIV JINR Sports Games ended with the final competitions in volleyball, football, and kettlebell lifting.

From 17 March to 9 April, the exhibition hall of the Cultural Centre “Mir” hosts the photo exhibition “Big science” by industrial photographer Mark Kozhura. His photographs depict JINR facilities and laboratory employees. The exhibition is one of the events of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD 2022). The opening ceremony of the exhibition with the participation of the author took place on 25 March.

Commenting on the opening of the exhibition, JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov noted that the Dubna audience is demanding. Both the Joint Institute and the city were nurtured by the brilliant works of the great photo artist Yuri Tumanov.

“Just like it should be in scientific Dubna, this exhibition is an experiment. Beautiful and modern one. When I first learned about the idea of this exposition, I thought that it would result in bright professional pictures of large-scale JINR facilities, detectors, “scientific hardware”, so to say. Pictures of everything that impresses people outside scientific context. However, when I saw the result, I was happy to note that it was exactly what we awaited. These photos tell us that science is made by people, that it is all about people. The life is in every photograph here. This is what can make science attractive,” JINR Director highlighted.

The author of the exhibition, Mark Kozhura, said that feedback from the heroes of his pictures is important to him. It is not always possible to express in words the passion for the favourite occupation to your love ones, but an artistic photograph from the workplace often speaks for itself. “It is very important for me when a father can come home in the evening, show his child one of these photos and proudly say, “This is me, this is my workplace, this is my life’s work,” he shared his emotions.

On 25 March, a festive celebration of the 67th anniversary of the establishment of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research took place at the JINR Cultural Centre “Mir”. The culmination of the festive events was the concert “Musica universalis: Art and Science” performed by JINR employees, creative teams of the Cultural Centre, Dubna, and students of the Children’s Music School. It is symbolic that the JINR founders considered music education to be the most important part of the formation of the cultural environment of the city, and on the Institute’s Foundation Day, 26 March 1956, the Dubna Children’s Music School was also established. This evening, classical pieces, the musical heritage of the JINR Member States, – Armenia, Kazakhstan, Russia, – as well as rock music and African drums sounded from the stage.

Traditionally, on the JINR Foundation Day, Director of the Institute Academician Grigory Trubnikov and Scientific Leader of JINR Academician Victor Matveev presented certificates of awarding grants to schoolteachers and teachers of additional school education of Dubna.

The event also included the presentation of awards of Russia, the country of the Institute’s location, and the Moscow Region, as well as medals and notes of acknowledgement of JINR to the employees of the Institute.