On 12 December, an Information Centre of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research opened for Tomsk scientists, students, and schoolchildren at Tomsk Polytechnic University. The Centre will become an “information window” into the Institute’s work and achievements of Russian and world science. Scientific and educational, as well as popular science events in the field of modern physics will be held there.

The Centre is located in a multifunctional classroom in one of the academic buildings of Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU). The classroom is equipped with computer workplaces with necessary information materials and multimedia equipment.

“JINR is not just a well-known scientific organization. It is an international scientific brand of our country. 10 elements of the Mendeleev Periodic Table were discovered or synthesised in Dubna, the NICA Accelerator Complex is being built here, and the most important research is being conducted. I would like to note the great work of Institute’s scientists in popularising scientific knowledge and modern physics,” TPU Rector Dmitry Sednev said. “Tomsk Polytechnic University’s researchers have been cooperating with colleagues from JINR for a long time, our students and postgraduates are doing an internship at the Institute. And the Centre that we have opened today will work as an information window for young scientists of Tomsk. I am sure that we will hold many bright joint events here.”

JINR Information Centres are already operating in Armenia, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Russia: in North Ossetia, Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok, and Kamchatka. The Centre at Tomsk Polytechnic University became the first in Siberia.

Photos by TPU press office

“Today Tomsk has become a member of a large international network of Information Centres of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. The opening of the Information Centre in Tomsk, a large scientific and educational centre in Siberia, provides new opportunities for expanding the JINR cooperation with Tomsk Polytechnic University, TSU, and other universities and research institutes of the city included in the Big University project. The JINR Infocentre provides online tours of all the basic facilities of the Institute and acquaintance with megascience projects, lectures by scientists from Dubna for students, schoolchildren, and their teachers, laboratory works and workshops, as well as popular science events aimed at stimulating interest in science in general,” JINR Director RAS Academician Grigory Trubnikov commented. He put special attention to the work with foreign students, of whom there are many in Tomsk, including young people from Egypt, which became the JINR Member State last year. So, events were held in English for students studying nuclear physics already within the programme of the current visit of specialists from Dubna.

“TPU has a high reputation both in the country and the world. It is symbolic for the Joint Institute to open its Information Centre here, because the history of Tomsk Polytechnic University is connected with the name of Dmitry Mendeleev,” Special Representative of the JINR Director for Cooperation with International and Russian Scientific Organizations Boris Sharkov highlighted. According to the JINR representative, the Institute is going to maintain together with TPU a high level and efficiency of the new Information Centre, thereby making it attractive for schoolchildren, students, as well as for teachers.

Head of the Information Centre at JINR Andrey Lider highlighted in his speech the role of the Information Centre for scientific and educational activities. “The Infocentre will demonstrate the richness of the existing scientific infrastructure in the territory of Russia and open access to it. This will allow students to put their knowledge and skills into practice and carry out joint research work. An important activity of the Infocentre will be the training of students in nuclear physics and accelerator physics,” he said.

The opening took place on Monday during the visit of a delegation of JINR scientists to TPU. They are holding a school for young scientists of Tomsk and a series of popular science lectures for schoolchildren of the city. The delegation is also discovering more about the scientific infrastructure of the university.

The Centre also houses a photo exhibition “Do science in Dubna”. It presents portraits of young scientists and JINR specialists. Different paths from different cities brought those people to the science city on the banks of the Volga river, but they were all united by the desire to participate in JINR scientific projects. The JINR exhibition “Do science in Dubna” is one of the events of the JINR additional programme for the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development IYBSSD 2022. JINR became one of the IYBSSD organizers.