On 31 October, the JINR Mir Cultural Centre hosted the opening of the Keep Your Balance photo exhibition and the presentation of the eponymous JINR corporate calendar for 2025. The exposition is organized by the Press Office of the Joint Institute and features its employees who actively cycle while getting to work, exploring the city , and training in recognisable locations of Dubna, the city JINR is situated in. The exhibition will be open at the Mir Cultural Centre until 24 November.

Dubna has always been considered a city of cyclists: from Academician Bruno Pontecorvo to the construction of the modern Around Dubna cycle track . A bicycle is a reliable companion for many JINR specialists on the way to scientific discoveries (to work), helping them maintain a sharp and clear mind through exercise and take inspiring trips.

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Chief Scientific Secretary of the Institute Sergey Nedelko gave an opening speech. “This is the first exhibition in quite a while celebrating the seemingly trivial, yet nice and joyful side of life in our peculiar city, our peculiar Institute, with no embellishment. It is very important that not only exhibitions, but all of the Cultural Centre events bring out this emotion in visitors,” he stressed.

Head of the Social Infrastructure Management Office Andrey Tamonov noted that this is the third sports-themed photo project at the Institute. In 2023, Daria Konova, the project photographer, a leading bibliographer at the JINR Universal Public Library, won the #WatchLouder All-Russian contest with the Reading Athletes series of photos showcasing various athletes reading in the interiors of the Library. “The previous project turned out to be successful and exciting. It inspired the author to continue and create this next one, following the scientific, sports, and cultural traditions of our Institute,” Andrey Tamonov commented. Daria Konova is also the author of photos for the 2024 JINR corporate calendar titled “Great scientists – talented athletes “, which was dedicated to scientists and specialists of the Institute who successfully combine research and an active lifestyle in various sports: running, tennis, football, archery, chess, billiards, basketball, skiing, swimming.

Daria Konova thanked the Press Office for supporting the project and noted that it was exciting to work with the models. “As a photographer, it was important for me to show in this project how JINR cyclists differ, to show that a bicycle is not only a sports equipment, but also a means of transport. The main thing I wanted to convey is that this project is primarily about people,” the author said.

Lilia Uriadysheva, the organizer of the photoshoot, the exhibition curator, Leading Specialist for Exhibition Management at the JINR Press Office, presented the 2025 JINR wall calendar titled “Keep Your Balance”. She noted that there are additional photos not included in the calendar. “It captures our colleagues, cyclists of different ages, genders, nationalities, laboratories: brave, beautiful, and active. All the photos have one wonderful thing in common – a bicycle, which helps us to live a balanced life, keep fit, and relax,” Lilia Uriadysheva concluded. In the large family of the Institute, she continued, it is important to highlight unexpected things that unite the employees.

The participants shared their impressions of taking part in the photo project.

The life of the Pliskovsky family is closely intertwined with DLNP at JINR, where Evgeny works as a researcher in the Baikal-GVD Project, and Oksana runs the “Lifehacks of some use for a scientist” lecture series.

“It just dawned on me that we are simply living our lives, doing mundane things, and not realising how connected we are to the city and the community. Each of us defines the culture of this city. Now, at the exhibition, it is so clear that we are all different, but are actually the salt of the earth!” Oksana Pliskovskaya stated.

“I am very glad that I was offered to participate, because I really love bicycles. I have tons of stories about them. There is even a song “A bicycle will save the world”. And I agree, as it benefits ecology and other aspects of our life ,” an FLNP JINR researcher Pavel Nekhoroshkov says. “I started cycling when I first came to Dubna. That led to my first falls, my first meetings and farewells . Now I use it for work, to ride to the reactor. It started to rain when we were shooting, but it only added to the mood of the photo. Now I see these photos and realise that each of them has its own story, its own soul.

It is a well-known fact that even professors ride bicycles in Dubna. And I would like young people who come to the Institute or just visit Dubna not to think that science is something dry , official. We write articles and reports, but at the same time, there is another side of science, another side of Institute’s youth, and cycling life is part of it!”