On 21 – 22 June 2019, the 95th meeting of the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee (NuPECC) was held in the International Conference Hall in Dubna.

The Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee, in which JINR has been a full member since 2014, holds its meetings three times a year. JINR Vice-Director Academician Boris Sharkov represents the Joint Institute in the NuPECC committee. NuPECC Chairman, Prof. Marek Lewitowicz, who is also Chairman of the JINR PAC for Nuclear Physics, commented on the NuPECC Committee and the meeting in Dubna: “Among members of the Committee, which gathers three times a year, there are representatives of leading nuclear physics laboratories from almost all European countries, associate members from the Republic of South Africa and Japan, and observers from South America, Canada, the USA, and Asia. Meetings of the Committee are the key events for the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee. We discuss the current status of various projects in the fields of nuclear physics at these meetings, and this gives to members of the committee an opportunity to supervise their development several times a year. At the present meeting, reports will be devoted to, for example, such projects as FAIR, GANIL-SPIRAL 2, as well as projects on nuclear physics of other countries. We aim to develop the collaboration not only between different countries but also between different fields of physics. Thus, for example, we organize this year a joint meeting of three committees: NuPECC, ECFA for particle physics, and APPEC for astrophysics. It is the first event of the kind aimed to work out a general European strategy for physics.

The meeting in Dubna was opened with a joint workshop of NuPECC representatives and JINR leaders at which JINR Director Academician Victor Matveev welcomed participants. JINR leaders presented to participants an overview of major fields of JINR scientific activities. JINR Vice-Director Boris Sharkov opened the meeting with an overview presentation dedicated to the Joint Institute. Scientific activities of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in the fields of synthesis of superheavy elements were reported on by FLNR Scientific Leader Academician Yuri Oganessian. The flagship project of JINR the NICA collider was presented by spokesman of the MPD collaboration at NICA Adam Kisiel. FLNP Director Valery Shvetsov told participants about the IBR-2 research reactor and prospects for research at neutron beams. The current research programme of JINR at radioactive nuclei beams was presented by Head of the FLNR Sector Andrey Fomichev. FLNR Chief Researcher, RAS Corresponding Member Leonid Grigorenko reported on the future FLNR research on light exotic nuclei.

From the second half of the day, the 95th NuPECC meeting started its actual work aimed at the implementation of the European Long Range Plan for nuclear physics and coordination of activities of nuclear physics centres of Europe. The programme of the 95th NuPECC meeting was continued on 22 June. A part of its participants will take part in the meeting of the JINR Programme Advisory Committee for Nuclear Physics that will be launched on Monday, 24 June.

Moreover, on the first day of the meeting, participants visited the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions where they saw the Superheavy Element Factory, the DC-280 cyclotron, and the ACCULINNA-2 fragment separator. Acquaintance with the JINR scientific infrastructure was continued on the next day in the Laboratory of High Energy Physics where the NICA collider complex being constructed was introduced to the guests.

Kristina Moisenz,
Photos by Elena Puzynina