On 22 December, a traditional new year eve press conference was held during which JINR Director Academician V.A. Matveev summed up the results of the year, spoke about new projects and plans and answered the questions of Dubna journalists.

“JINR acquired a serious support from the governments of the JINR Member States,” Victor A. Matveev noted. “JINR prestige is enormous, and it gives us hope that attention to JINR development and its programmes won’t vanish. Speaking metaphorically, a plane gains height but there should not be euphoria. We should remember about our responsibilities and achieve effective use of funds allocated by the JINR Member States.”

The Committee of Plenipotentiaries while adopting a new Seven-Year Plan took care to make all research fields balanced. Almost all research directions of JINR are unique and of high demand. A little more than a year ago, the first stone laying ceremony for the NICA collider was held at the territory of the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics. And now guests are surprised how much has been already done. By the way, much work is unseen as far as it was made underground – a complicated drain system, foundations.

The Factory of Superheavy Elements is almost finished. The unique D-280 cyclotron, that was made for study of superheavy elements, is already assembled and being commissioned now.

IBR means not only a stable work of the facility but also users’ policy development, programme of new spectrometers development and new projects. Thus, construction of an integrated facility for study of matter by means of neutron and synchrotron beams is discussed with colleagues from Poland.

The Neutron programme is being actively developed, particularly the deep underwater neutrino telescope in Baikal is already assembled and the second cluster of photodetectors that are at the bottom of the lake operates now. The Multifunctional Information and Computing Complex is one of the most important basic facilities of JINR, and its development is fulfilled in all directions.

“Each laboratory has its own achievements, own prospects. We believe that there will be more and more results from year to year,” – V.A. Matveev emphasized. JINR Director congratulated the JINR multinational staff and all Dubna citizens on New Year and bright holiday of Christmas, wished the city prosperity and expressed his hope that 2018 will be even more successful than the expiring year.

More details in the next issue of the JINR Weekly Newspaper

Galina Myalkovskaya