Photo by Bair Shaibonov won photo competition held within Russian-German Year of Cooperation in Science and Education

Culture, 19 November 2021

A photo by Bair Shaybonov submitted to the Russian-German competition of popular science photographs “Exploring Infinity” is recognised by the joint decision of the Russian and German parties as one of the best competition works. Bair Shaybonov took his photo on the ice of the Baikal-GVD neutrino observatory camp. The Baikal deep underwater neutrino telescope (Baikal-GVD) is one of the largest in the Northern hemisphere.

A photo by Bair Shaibonov acknowledged one of the best at the Open Russian-German Competition “Exploring Infinity”

The Russian-German competition of popular science photographs “Exploring Infinity” was announced in order to popularise scientific and educational cooperation between Russia and Germany within the Russian-German Year of Cooperation in Science and Education in 2018−2020. Exhibitions of the best works will be held on the platforms of Russian and German events, including those within the implementation of the “Russian-German Roadmap for Cooperation in Education, Science, Research and Innovations” initiated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany.

It should be reminded that the Russian-German Year of Cooperation in Science and Education 2018-2020 finished on 15 September 2020. The key event of the сlosing сeremony of the bilateral year announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Federal Republic of Germany was the conference “Russian-German dialogue in education and science: creating future together”, in which Grigory Trubnikov took part being the first JINR Vice-Director at that time.

JINR became an exhibitor at an innovative virtual exhibition held in the frames of the closing ceremony of the Year. JINR also became a laureate of the contest “Russia and Germany: Scientific and Educational Bridges” in the category “Advanced Research” as a member of the TAIGA international experiment. It is one of the priority JINR projects in the fields of astrophysical studies, and the Institute became a laureate for successful long-term scientific cooperation in the frames of the TAIGA Observatory – Russia and Germany open up a new window to the Universe”.

Bair Shaybonov is a Candidate of Physics and Mathematics, a senior researcher at the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems, a member of the Baikal-GVD collaboration, a regular participant of Baikal expeditions. Bair was born in Irkutsk in 1980. He graduated from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute in 2003. While studying, he learned that a large science experiment was being conducted in his native region and decided to deal with it in the future. He completed his postgraduate course at the Institute for Nuclear Research of RAS on the topic of the Baikal experiment. Since 2006, Bair has been working at JINR on the project of Baikal Neutrino Telescope construction. His activities are closely related to this neutrino experiment: he coordinates data processing and analysis. Lake Baikal’s nature impressed Bair so much that he started taking pictures during expeditions. His photographs were published in popular science journals, used in well-known media projects, and presented at large science conferences to illustrate the talks on the Baikal neutrino experiment.