On 28 May, the defence of bachelor and master theses of the Neutron Diffraction Department of the Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, a JINR-based department , was held in the branch of SINP MSU. To the usual festivity in such cases, an anniversary motif was added — this year the Department celebrates its 30th anniversary.

The topics of the bachelor theses (there were six of them) demonstrated almost the entire range of research conducted at FLNP, including isotope, neutron, and X-ray diffraction analysis, calculations of small-angle scattering spectra and modelling of processes, and, of course, the study of ancient bronze kiaf by neutron radiography and tomography. Two master theses were devoted to the creation of neutron-optical devices for conducting fundamental research at the new Neptun reactor designed at FLNP. After the successful defence, some students shared their impressions.

Yu. A. Antonov: It is more interesting to do science than any other profession, you are trying to learn the basics of the universe. Why neutronography? It includes a wider range of studies, there is a certain limit in other areas.

P. V. Zhuchkov: I’m interested to know what everything consists of. In my opinion this is an innate interest of every person. And since I didn’t want to do pure science, I chose a more applied direction — neutronography. The topic of my work – nanomedicaments – will help in the development of new drugs, and eventually, help people. My supervisor is M. A. Kiselev helped me with everything.

M. E. Donets: Why did I decide to do science? I will quote Victor Lazarevich Aksenov. He once told us, “science is like love, it is impossible to explain to anyone why you are doing this, you just feel it.” I was engaged in neutronographic analysis of cathode materials. At first, I chose a different direction, but when in December 2019, I heard a speech by an employee of FLNP I. A. Bobrikov, saw his sparkling eyes, I then decided to change the direction. There is nothing more pleasant than listening to such people.

K. E. Malkov: At first, I also studied theoretical physics, elementary particle physics, but it is neutronography that gave me such tremendous experience. A huge number of methods are used here, and T. V. Tropin is able to explain everything so clearly that it is simply impossible not to understand.

In addition to the defence of theses, there was another event on this day. V. L. Aksenov announced his resignation from the post of the Head of the Department of Neutronography.

The Director of the branch office of the SINP MSU T. V. Tetereva: The branch is proud of its founders and its graduates. Victor Lazarevich is one of the most worthy graduates of the branch. In addition to his well-known remarkable personal traits, he truly appreciates and knows the history of Dubna as only a few people do. Thanks to him, the branch was able to develop in the most difficult 1990s. He always took care of the most important connections between JINR and the Moscow State University. At some point, he moved from the status of a graduate to the successor of the founding fathers. I accept his decision to leave the department, but I can’t get along with it. I am sure that the groundwork at the department and in the branch that he created will continue with dignity. We can wish him to stay as we know him longer, and please all of us with his visits.

V. L. Aksenov: At the end of the 1980s, JINR established an age limit for holding senior positions: 65 years (for the members of the academies of the Member States – 70 years). The same thing was in the Russian Academy of Sciences. I believe that this is right. At the age of 70, I left senior positions at the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute of the National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute” and I have been released from all others over the past four years.The last one remained – at the Department of Neutronography of the Moscow State University.

Today I conducted my last defence as the Head of the Department. I am pleased that I am leaving it in good condition, and today’s results have confirmed this. All six bachelor works got “excellent” marks, all the works were done at FLNP. According to the quota established by the MSU Faculty of Physics, the Department can accept four masters out of six bachelors. There will be a competition, everyone will take exams, compete with each other. There is always such a selection : 3-4 out of 5-6 bachelors enter the master’s programme, and not all of them reach the defence.

This year, two masters have reached the defence — Evgeny Kolupaev and Andrey Sukhanov, very talented ones. They were put in rather difficult conditions because the topic of their theses is completely new, even their scientific supervisors do not know the answers to the questions in it. This topic is related to the new Neptun reactor. We hope that the neutron fluxes on it will allow us to significantly expand our research programme towards fundamental research and nuclear physics, which didn’t happen at the IBR-2. In particular, these two theses were carried out under the programme of future studies of the neutron-antineutron oscillation. This scientific problem has been discussed for more than 60 years, but there is no solution yet. And we hope that it will be possible at the new reactor. The task was given to these two students because we see them as future employees of the laboratory. Their theses are the beginning of a large research work on the creation of a cold neutron storage device at the Neptun reactor for solving many fundamental problems. Both students coped with the task excellently. At the same time, I would like to note a certain negative process that has been outlined for a long time and continues to develop. Namely, due to the overload of curricula, students have less and less time for practical work and for performing scientific work in Dubna. As a result, they are less likely to participate in scientific seminars, which means that they lose a lot in professional training.

Returning to my resignation, it was my pleasure to thank the staff of the branch. I entered this building as a student 51 years ago on 8 February 1970. As a graduate student, I held classes here on the course of Professor N. M. Plakida at the Department of D. I. Blokhintsev, then lectured at the Department of A. F. Tulinov, and in 1991, became the Head of the Neutron Diffraction Department. So my whole working life was spent at JINR and here. Over the past 30 years, FLNP and MSU, in addition to regular training sessions, have held many large-scale conferences and schools employees of the branch have been mainly responsible for. The atmosphere and attitude are very important, and these wonderful employees under the leadership of Tatyana Vsevolodovna create the basis for a creative atmosphere and goodwill. Both teachers and students always want to come here.

Olga Tarantina
JINR Weekly Newspaper