Last Friday, the 70th anniversary of the first launch of the JINR Synchrocyclotron was celebrated. At the festive lunch, heroic creators of the Synchrocyclotron, all veterans of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems were honoured. The whole history of the establishment of the oldest JINR laboratory, all achieved and world-recognized results of its scientific staff, considerable experience accumulated in the fields of nuclear physics, high-energy physics, condensed matter physics – all this is closely connected with the launch and long-term successful operation of the Synchrocyclotron in Dubna.

The creation of the Synchrocyclotron with high, world-record in those times energy of accelerated protons and deuterons became possible thanks to the constant support of the country’s top leadership and scientific leader of the Soviet atomic project Academician I. V. Kurchatov on the one hand. On the other hand, it was possible due to the existence in the Soviet Union of the scientific school of highly qualified nuclear physicists founded in the pre-war period. Achievements of these scientists were as good as those of foreign physicists.

Participants of the development of the Synchrocyclotron were first to solve complicated technical and engineering tasks never met before in the scientific and building fields. All specialists participating in the creation of the facility were marked with sole responsibility and competence in the entrusted task. Leading engineers and scientists of the country took part in the creation of the accelerator, experimental and mathematical research, and exploitation of the facility. Among them, there were M. G. Meshcheryakov, V. P. Dzhelepov, V. I. Veksler, I. G. Kabanov, A. L. Mints, D. V. Efremov, E. G. Komar and other brilliant scientists whose achievements were marked with governmental awards.

In spite of the complexity of the project and large volumes of building and installation work, the large-scale physical facility was constructed within an unprecedented time never achieved before in the Soviet Union.

For many years of existence of the Synchrocyclotron, numerous unique experiments were conducted, significant results were obtained, scientific discoveries were made, and all this brought the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems the status of one of the world-best scientific centres.

Information of the DLNP