The XIX International Conference on Symmetry Methods in Physics (SYMPHYS-XIX), organized jointly by JINR and the International Centre for Advanced Studies of Yerevan State University, began in Yerevan on 8 September. SYMPHYS-XIX is dedicated to the memory of the outstanding scientist, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei N. Sissakian. The event, set to last until 13 September, gathered more than 60 scientists from Bulgaria, Mexico, Poland, Russia, France, and other countries.

A. N. Sissakian (1944-2010) is a well-known theoretical physicist who made great contributions to nuclear physics, elementary particle physics, high energy physics, and the study of various aspects of symmetry in physics. His whole life was devoted to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, where he worked his way up from a junior researcher to the director of the Institute (2006-2010). Alexei Sissakian was the ideologist and the first leader of the creation of the NICA Megascience Project, the Heavy Ion Accelerator Complex at JINR. He co-chaired nine SYMPHYS Conferences. The aim of the event is to pay tribute to the memory of this brilliant physicist by bringing together scientists who knew Professor Alexei Sissakian personally, his colleagues and followers.

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The scientific programme of the conference covers topics at the intersection of mathematics and physics and focuses on group theory in the broadest sense, from description to prediction of properties of physical systems.

“SYMPHYS Conference series originated from meetings organized by Professor Yakov A. Smorodinsky (1917-1992), which were then continued by Professor Alexei N. Sisakian and have now become one of the few international meeting platforms for the physics and mathematics communities. The conference will present the most relevant sections of theoretical and mathematical physics that group theory methods play an important role in: integrable and superintegrable models, symmetries of differential and finite-difference equations, Lie groups and algebras, group representations and special functions, quantum algebras and groups and special functions, symmetries in atomic and nuclear physics and more,” Co-Chair of the Organizing Committee of the conference, a leading researcher at the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Elena Kolganova said.

On 10 September, the working day of the conference will be dedicated to the memory of Professor Viktor Voronov (1946-2024), BLTP JINR Director in 2007-2017.

Yerevan State University will host a photo exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of Academician Sissakian’s birth. Alexey Sissakian devoted a lot of time and effort to organizing international scientific and technical cooperation between JINR and Armenia. Conferences, scientific schools, and symposiums were held with his direct participation and leadership. Largely thanks to the efforts of Alexei Sissakian, the theoretical physicists and experimentalists of Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory and Yerevan State University now have the opportunity to undergo training at JINR’s unique research facilities and defend their theses on relevant areas of modern physics.