On 23 October, Dr. Rudzani Nemutudi, Deputy Director of the accelerator centre of the Republic of South Africa, iThemba LABS, visited JINR. The organization has been fruitfully cooperating with the Joint Institute for a long time. The visit started with excursions to the scientific infrastructure of JINR laboratories. In addition, a round table discussion between Rudzani Nemutudi and representatives of the JINR leadership took place.

“I was able to see a number of JINR experimental facilities. This made it possible to identify the mutually beneficial areas of cooperation between our organizations more precisely,” Rudzani Nemutudi noted. Among the potential directions, he singled out nuclear physics and materials science, in particular, the study of membranes. “Being from South Africa, where there is shortage of fresh water, I can also see great potential for joint work in water purification,” Dr. Rudzani Nemutudi added.

Special Representative of the JINR Director for Cooperation with international and Russian scientific organizations Boris Sharkov, Head of the International Cooperation Department Otilia-Ana Culicov, and Head of the Group of South African Employees at JINR Arnoux Rossouw attended the round table. The parties considered the most relevant areas of expanding cooperation between JINR and iThemba LABS, among which the opportunities for participation of South African young scientists in the JINR Fellowship Programme and the JEMS training programme are of particular interest.

As part of the visit programme, iThemba LABS Deputy Director Dr. Rudzani Nemutudi visited the NICA Accelerator Complex, the DC-280 Cyclotron, and the Nanocentre, as well as got acquainted with the scientific programme and facilities of the Laboratory of Neutron Physics.