On 10 – 11 December 2018, high-school students of St. Petersburg Gymnasium No. 295, studying at the physical and mathematical department, visited JINR. Guests visited the Museum of History of Science and Technology of JINR, the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions and the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics.

Today’s school students interested in science are tomorrow’s engineers, scientists, and IT specialists. It is very important to demonstrate to these young people that they can make their dreams come true applying their knowledge, skills, and talent here, in Dubna. Being a developing organization, JINR is in constant need of young highly-qualified personnel, therefore JINR pays great attention to programmes popularising science.

The visit started in the Museum of History of Science and Technology of JINR where A. Zlotnikova and K. Kozubskiy told the guests about the achievements of Dubna scientists and new scientific projects of the Institute. High-school students paid special attention to the Museum hall exhibiting the collection of instruments and mechanisms demonstrating certain physical laws.

In the course of their acquaintance with the fields of scientific research of the Institute, students were guided around the IBR-2 reactor by E. Lychagin, FLNP Deputy Director for Science. Young visitors learned about fundamental and applied research conducted in the Laboratory.

The second half of the day was devoted to the visit to the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. FLNR Deputy Director for Science S. Sidorchuk read a lecture on the history of the discovery of superheavy elements, told the listeners about the greatest achievements of Dubna scientists, and the future plans of the laboratory. A. Voinov conducted a tour around the IC-100 accelerator used for producing track membranes and the constructed Factory of superheavy elements. Moreover, Head of the team Prof. Orelovich told the guests about the operation principles of electron microscope.

At the end of the visit, high-school students listened to the lecture “NICA – Megascience Project”, where a VBLHEP junior researcher K. Rosłon introduced to visitors the modern understanding of the structure of matter, told them about the theory of the Universe origin and about construction of the accelerator complex in Dubna with its collider and scientific riddles that JINR scientists hope to solve with the help of this gigantic facility. The two-day visit was concluded in the VBLHEP Magnet Hall where a junior researcher of the Laboratory M. Shandov told guests about all the stages of assembly and testing of superconducting magnets, which would soon become part of the international NICA project.