The 43rd meeting of the JINR Programme Advisory Committee for Condensed Matter Physics was held on 28-29 January 2016. The agenda of this meeting differed in one feature from previous previous meetings: PAC CMP Chairman Valeriu KANTSER said that this time a draft of the Seven-Year Plan was the main issue of discussions.

Another block of issues voiced at the PAC which should be reflected in the Seven-Year Plan, was associated with international collaborations. JINR participates in numerous bilateral and international projects, and, as it was noted by the PAC member D.Nagy, the plan must reflect the user policy. This policy, which has been already widely spread in FLNP, should be developed in other laboratories like LNR and LNP, in parallel with development of a tool platform.

The PAC programme included a proposal to open a new project at DLNP in the fields of positron spectroscopy. It was noted that this technique was worth developing. The PAC approved this project with some amendments.

A number of scientific reports this time were smaller than usual, but members of the PAC noted their high level. The following reports were presented: R.Saladino “First evidence on the role of 11B-irradiation of meteorites and formamide in the origin of biomolecules”, V.I.Petrenko “On the impact of nanoparticles on the structural stability of bio-macromolecules”. A special focus was put on reports in the FLNP topics of research, which were full of new results: “Investigations of Condensed Matter by Modern Neutron Scattering Methods”, “Development of the IBR-2 Facility with a Complex of Cryogenic Neutron Moderators” by D.P.Kozlenko, “Multimodal Platform for Raman and Nonlinear Optical Microscopy and Microspectroscopy for Condensed Matter Studies” by G.M.Arzumanyan.

PAC CMP member R.Saladino (Italy) is getting acquainted with reports of young scientists

Fifteen reports from FLNP, FLNR, LRB, and BLTP were presented at the poster session. Among the reports presented at the poster session, the first place was taken by the report of Pawel Horodek (DLNP) “Positron Beam Studies of Radiation Damage Induced by Swift Heavy Ions in Palladium”; the second place was taken by Yuliya Vinogradova “Spontaneous DNA damage in mouse retina and adaptive response of the retina to low doses of proton radiation”; the third place was taken by Maria Panina “Mathematical modeling of the radiation-induced DNA double-strand break repair in mammalian and human cells”.

D.P.Kozlenko was awarded the Ștefan Procopiu Prize of the Romanian Academy of Science. Congratulating the laureate, V.Kantser noted that this is an international recognition of his achievements.

Olga Tarantina,
Photo by Elena Puzynina