On 8 February, the Day of Russian Science, FLNR JINR Scientific Leader RAS Academician Yuri Oganessian delivered a lecture “The mass boundaries of atomic nuclei” by invitation of Rector of Moscow State University Victor Sadovnichy. Listeners stood in the aisles since the hall of the MSU Cultural Centre, where the outstanding scientist spoke, could barely accommodate everyone. Questions and answers that followed the lecture took almost an hour.

Introducing one of the first winners of the Sber Scientific Prize Yuri Oganessian, Director of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of Lomonosov Moscow State University Eduard Boos highlighted that there were significantly more Nobel laureates in the world than people after whom chemical elements were named in the Mendeleev’s Periodic Table.

“Element 118 is in the same row of the Mendeleev’s Periodic Table with noble gases. Yuri Tsolakovich is an extraordinarily noble man, a true knight of science,” Acting Dean of the MSU Faculty of Physics Vladimir Belokurov noted in his welcoming speech.

Yuri Oganessian began his speech with congratulations on the Day of Russian Science and recalled that he was giving a lecture on Dmitri Mendeleev’s birthday 154 years after he discovered the periodic law. “Now, a century and a half later, this law remains relevant and stands at the forefront of tasks of modern science,” Yuri Tsolakovich said.

He told the audience about the atomism of Democritus, who was the first to suggest that the world consists of the tiniest fractions, i.e. atoms. Yuri Oganessian spoke about the discovery of the atomic nucleus as well. He went into detail on the prospects of research in the field of synthesis of elements that do not exist in nature, further development of the Superheavy Element Factory in Dubna, which significantly accelerated the effectiveness of work, and answered numerous questions from the audience.

The Sber Scientific Prize, the largest private Russian prize in the field of science, was awarded to Yuri Oganessian in the Physical World category last December for his fundamental work on the synthesis of superheavy elements and contribution to the formation of the accelerator experimental basis that provide the prospect for revolutionary nuclear technologies.