On 17 July 2018, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Italian Republic in the Russian Federation Mr. Pasquale Q. Terracciano paid his first official visit to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. The Ambassador was accompanied by First Counselor of the Department of the promotion of Italian culture, science and language and coordination of the consular network Walter Ferrara and Scientific Attaché Aldo Spallone. Moreover, leaders of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), namely INFN President Fernando Ferroni and INFN Vice-President Antonio Masiero, also arrived at Dubna.

Pasquale Q. Terracciano was appointed as official representative of the Italian Republic in the Russian Federation at the beginning of 2018. The main goal of the Ambassador’s visit to Dubna was acquaintance with JINR and its fields of scientific activities.

In the JINR Directorate, the delegation was welcomed by JINR Director Academician V.A. Matveev, JINR Vice-Director M.G. Itkis, JINR Chief Scientific Secretary A.S. Sorin, JINR Vice-Director, VBLHEP Director V.D. Kekelidze, FLNR Scientific Leader Academician Yu.Ts. Oganessian and Head of the JINR International Cooperation Department D.V. Kamanin. Addressing the welcoming speech to the guests, JINR Director V.A. Matveev noted traditionally close cooperation between JINR and Italy as well as highly appreciated support of this cooperation by the Italian Embassy in Russia. During the meeting, A.S. Sorin presented a wide range of research carried out at JINR to the guests, told them about the present state and prospects of the Institute in the fields of development of experimental facilities and also described principles of the Institute’s organization. Special attention at the presentation was paid to JINR achievements in the fields of the synthesis of superheavy elements and information on the NICA mega-science project.

The high-level delegation had an opportunity to learn more about the JINR’s flagship project NICA during the excursion to the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics. In addition, a legendary Synchrophasotron, the Nuclotron superconducting accelerator as well as the Factory of superconducting magnets and detector laboratories were presented to the guests. After that the Ambassador was acquainted with the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems where the guests visited the memorial study of Bruno Pontecorvo.

In conclusion of the visit, opening the press-conference for the city media, Pasquale Q. Terracciano said: “I am very pleased and honoured to be here in Dubna, to visit this historical scientific research centre. I am very happy to have this opportunity to come with an important delegation with the President and Vice-President of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics. Of course, you know that Italy has very strong connection with this centre. It’s a historical connection because of Bruno Pontecorvo and his inspirational work that he conducted in this research centre. But we also have a very long tradition of cooperation in scientific fields, in particular in physics. In fact, an important agreement was signed in 1996 between the Italian research institutions and the Dubna centre. And last year, during the visit of our President of the Republic Mattarella, more ambitious agreement was signed in the Italian Embassy in Moscow. I am sure that history will continue bearing fruit, and our cooperation will be stronger and stronger. In spite of not being a physicist and chemist, it is still really thrilling to be in the centre where many new chemical elements of the Periodic table were discovered. It is a nice experience to be here and I’ve also met one of the scientists after whom one of the elements was named.”

V.A. Matveev in his response said the following: “It is a great day for Dubna and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. We are very proud and happy to accept such a high-level delegation of the Italian Republic headed by His Excellency Ambassador Pasquale Q. Terracciano accompanied by our dear colleagues from the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), namely INFN President and Vice-President. We hope that today’s visit of the Italian Ambassador is a proof that our cooperation will continue to develop actively. It is significant for JINR, which is at the phase of intense development and invites colleagues from Italy and from all over the world to participate in our ambitious scientific project NICA.”

INFN President Fernando Ferroni made comments for JINR journalists: “We have been cooperating with JINR for many years. We have done experiments together, we have hosted people in Turin at the beginning, and people from Turin used to come here. And then we have done experiments together in CERN in Geneva, and then we have done something here. Nowadays, everything is new, JINR is booming and blooming, it is constructing a new accelerator. For example, the heart of the MPD experiment at NICA is made in Italy with the help of INFN (Genoa). We hope that we can contribute more, we can also have cooperation in electronics for the experiment and something else. The Joint Institute is becoming a very attractive place for science. So, I think INFN will be represented here by its scientists.”

Photos by Elena Puzynina, JINR Scientific Information Department