From 14 to 18 June 2016, festive events dedicated to the 60th anniversary of JINR and the 10th anniversary of the launching the DC-60 heavy-ion accelerator created with the participation of employees of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, JINR were held in Astana, the capital of the JINR Member State, the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The ceremonial opening of an international conference “JINR Days in Kazakhstan” was held on 15 June in the Balkhash conference hall of the “Astana Marriott” hotel. Vice-Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan B.M. Dzhaksaliev welcomed a delegation from JINR represented by JINR Director V.A. Matveev, JINR Vice-Director Professor M.G. Itkis, Director of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions S.N. Dmitriev, Director of the Laboratory of Information Technologies by V.V. Korenkov, Deputy Director of the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics Yu.K. Potrebenikov, Head of the international Cooperation Department D.V. Kamanin. Among the honorary guests of the event were representatives of embassies of the JINR Member States: Armenia, Georgia, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and the Directorate of the LLP “Rosatom Central Asia”. Media support of the event was provided by the main TV channels of Astana.

After a short introduction, participants were awarded different kinds of awards. Members of the JINR delegation V.A. Matveev, M.G. Itkis, S.N. Dmitriev, and D.V. Kamanin were awarded medals “Honored worker of atomic industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan” of various degrees for active participation in development of cooperation with Kazakhstan in the fields of nuclear physics. Kazakh partners of JINR K.K. Kadyrzhanov, N.T.Burtebaev, F.M. Penkov, and T.M. Zhantikin were awarded the JINR Commemorative Honorary Medals “For Services to science and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research”. And Kazakh school students, winners of the Republican and international contests were awarded diplomas by the co-chairmen of the meeting: Director General of the RSE INP S.K. Sakhiev and JINR Director V.A. Matveev.

On the first day of the meeting, the JINR delegation had an opportunity to meet with the Directorate of the JINR’s important Kazakhstan partner — the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, where several participants were awarded with the commemorative medals “20 years of the L.N. Gumilyov ENU”, and visit the Astana branch of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Research Complex and to estimate the success rate of the jointly implemented project of the heavy ion accelerator DC-60.

The second day of the meeting was marked by a reconnaissance visit to a rapidly developing scientific and educational centre of Astana, the Nazarbayev University, where the Memorandum on cooperation with JINR was signed; another remarkable visit of the day was held in the equipped with the latest technology Medical Centre Hospital of the President’s affairs Administration of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the branch of the corporate fund “University Medical Center” of the Republican Diagnostic Center. It should be noted that the bulk of employees serving facilities that provide required radioactive pharmaceutical preparations coverage for the Department of Nuclear Medicine, were given professional training at JINR.

At the end of the JINR Days in Kazakhstan, participants visited the Republican Educational Health Center “Baldauren” located in a picturesque place of Kazakhstan on the shore of lake Borovoe, where in a ceremonial atmosphere the winners of the school competitions were awarded certificates, and the representative of the JINR University Centre Elena Karpova presented the students a brief report on JINR educational programmes.