«We can always rely on LIT»

A ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 50th anniversary of foundation of the Laboratory of Information Technologies JINR was held on 16 September 2016 in the JINR Cultural Centre “Mir”.

JINR Vice-Director M.G. Itkis opened the ceremonial meeting: “I have the honour to congratulate you on the remarkable anniversary. The Laboratory has made a long way by which we can trace the course of the development of information technologies starting from theUral-1 computer, going through BESM-4, BESM-6, series of computers ES and CDC to the Multifunctional Information and Computing Complex. The Laboratory has played a huge role in all achievements of the JINR physics research as well as in successful collaboration with FNAL (USA) and CERN. We have to pay tribute to the Laboratory, where development of the Computing Complex has been held concurrently with study of mathematics and mathematical physics. N.N. Govorun and E.P. Zhidkov cooperated with all JINR laboratories and other institutions in the fields of processing of large amounts of data. Today we have a huge basic facility via LIT. The Laboratory continues to evolve, in recent years, Tier2 and Tier1 centres for processing data from the Large Hadron Collider were established. This development is in the interests of high energy physics, particle physics and condensed matter physics”.

“You are rapidly evolving, talented and creative. We have great expectations for your proper vision of the future tasks and challenges related with our project NICA”. VBLHEP Director V.D. Kekelidze

LIT Director V.V. Korenkov made a report “50 years since the establishment of LIT”. Greeting telegrams from the State Duma, staff members of IHEP (Protvino), the Plekhanov Russian State University of Economics, Plenipotentiary Representative of the government of Armenia S. Harutyunyan, member of the JINR Scientific Council G. Stratan (Romania) were voiced. VBLHEP Director V.D. Kekelidze congratulated LIT staff members: “Development of high energy physics keeps pace with development of information technologies. And oftentimes LIT is the forward. You are rapidly evolving, talented and creative. We have great expectations for your proper vision of the future tasks and challenges related with our project NICA”. One of the pioneers of computing in Russia, RAS Academician V.P. Ivannikov (Institute for System Programming RAS) recalled a presentation of N.N. Govorun in the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences that left a lasting impression. Deputy Director of the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics RAS V.F. Tishkin emphasized close contacts of N.N. Govorun and Academicians A.N. Tikhonov and A.A. Samarsky in various fields of science, and, as he said, the establishment of the Monitoring System “Dubna” was the real revolution.

There were serious and humorous greetings. BLTP Director V.V. Voronov welcomed the Laboratory which is native for theorists: ”BLTP also contributed to establishment of LCTA (currently LIT) by delegating its staff members at the beginning. We ally not only scientific relation and computing networks. LCTA always supplied brides for theorists”. Rector of the University «Dubna» D.V.Fursaev noted: “We consider you as a branch of the University. Such a partner is the envy of any young Russian University. More than 35 of our graduates work in the Laboratory, I want to wish you talented students”. President of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI B.N. Onykii recalled the hard 1990s, when MEPhI was literally frozen, students studied in classrooms wearing street clothes. “I called A.M. Baldin who was our graduate and asked him to give a lecture about the future of science. The lecture gathered a full auditorium, students were standing in the aisles and they left the auditorium in a completely different mood. I’m trying to do everything to sustain joint work of MEPhI and JINR and participation of MIPhI in international schools. You opened wide not a “window to Europe” but a gateway”. G.Yu. Riznichenko conveyed congratulations on behalf of the Biological Faculty of the MSU: ”I am speaking also as a co-organizer of the conference “Mathematics. Computer. Education” which was founded by R. Pose, A.A. Samarsky and S.P. Kurdiumov more than 20 years ago. Hundreds of university teachers, school teachers, students and postgraduates attend this conference; and it would be difficult to hold it without the support of V.V. Korenkov, T.A. Strizh, G.A. Korobova and others employees of the Laboratory”.

V.V. Voevodin (SRCC MSU) noted: “We have much in common; we are acquainted with your developments which have resulted now in a large number of joint projects. It is a real pleasure to work with you and the Institute. One reason for this is that you are responsible people, we can always rely on LIT”. A.P. Kryukov conveyed congratulations on behalf of Director of the MSU Institute of Nuclear Physics M.I. Panasyuk: “Dubna made invaluable contribution to development of grid technologies which we have started together. We wish LIT to develop successfully!”

FLNP Director V.N. Shvetsov, Dubna Satellite Communications Center Director A.P. Duka, Director of the NRC “Kurchatov Institute” V.E. Velikhov pronounced their congratulations, and Head of the NRC KI Department V.A. Il’in noted: “We’ve succeed in joining our efforts and developed Tier1, now we have to develop Tier0 for the NICA project and the PIK reactor. The period from 2000 to 2012 is unique for the history of Russia, when the energy and initiative of specific persons allowed us to establish a structure for distributed computing. Now we are facing a new challenge which is a new run at the LHC. Your 50th anniversary of successful development clearly showed that cybernetics and information technology are not pseudosciences at all!”

A group of LIT employees and veterans in a ceremonial atmosphere were awarded honorary staff member diplomas, honorary diplomas and certificates of the Institute. For LIT veterans the festive event in the Cultural Centre was not only a meeting with ex-colleagues and friends, but with their youth captured on black-and-white photographs of the laboratory wall newspaper “Impulse”, issues of which adorned the exhibition hall of the Cultural Centre.

Olga Tarantina,
JINR Weekly Newspaper “Dubna: science, community, progress”