On 26 February, a seminar “Relativistic nuclear physics and polarization phenomena” dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the birth of Academician A. M. Baldin was held. The meeting took place online. More than 60 colleagues and friends of Alexander Mikhailovich, students and relatives joined the video conference. JINR Scientific Leader V. A. Matveev, JINR Chief Scientific Secretary A. S. Sorin, Director of the Laboratory of High Energy Physics V. D. Kekelidze welcomed participants.

When referring to an authoritative, famous, well-known figure, they often call them an influential person. As for Academician A. M. Baldin, this influence was versatile: the development of new scientific fields in physics, cooperation with the largest scientific centres, new ideas born in the laboratory led by him, and, of course, support and inspiration of staff members, especially young ones. That is why despite the online format of the seminar, presented reports combined a purely scientific approach, admiration for the scale of activities of Alexander Mikhailovich, respectful memories with gratitude.

A. I. Malakhov in his report “On the development of A. M. Baldin’s ideas” mentioned the first presentation of the idea to create a collider in Dubna made in 2002 at the 92nd meeting of the Scientific Council. Nowadays, it is a large-scale project NICA being implemented in full swing thanks to the perseverance, courage, and incredible efficiency of the leaders, first of all. The speaker also mentioned the fact of how proud Alexander Mikhailovich was of the title “Honorary citizen of Dubna”.

A. D. Kozlenko in his report “A. M. Baldin and his Nuclotron” shared memories of the launch of this basic facility, the first beam, runs, and experiments. He also spoke about spring gardening in the laboratory. An oak tree planted by Academician Baldin still grows in front of one of the Laboratory’s buildings. It is a symbolic and eloquent fact of the biography.

Reports with “speaking” names about the scientific heritage of the Academician were made by A. A. Baldin (“On the concept of “elementary particle” and the principle of reductionism in the A. M. Baldin’s works”), V. V. Burov (“About the flucton models”), V. I. Yukalov (“A. M. Baldin’s ideas about the mixed quark-hadronic matter”), S. S. Shimansky (A. M. Baldin and QGP, the dilepton anisotropy in AA-collisions”). Participants recalled the seminar Baldin autumn, Gomel schools of young scientists on problems of particle physics and nuclear physics, cooperation with Protvino and Saint Petersburg, Orenburg Helium Refinery, about moral support provided to young researchers. E. S. Kokoulina, G. A. Feofilov, P. I. Zarubin, V. Kushpil also gave talks in addition to the reports. Academician I. N. Meshkov spoke about the first meeting with A. M. Baldin at an MSU seminar, about his passion for mountaineering, i.e. the sports that characterized Alexander Mikhailovich the best: unique cross-country ability, endurance, the goal to take the height.

Galina Myalkovskaya, JINR Weekly Newspaper