On 27 April 2017, JINR was visited by Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic Peter Žiga, Minister of Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport Peter Plavčan and their accompanying persons. The Slovak delegation was acquainted with work on establishment of the NICA complex in the Laboratory of High Energy Physics, research in the fields of heavy-ion physics and the Factory of Superheavy Elements construction project in the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, met with representatives of the Slovak national group of JINR staff members. The reception was attended by JINR Vice-Directors Mikhail Itkis and Richard Lednický, FLNR Director Sergey Dmitriev, VBLHEP Deputy Director Rumen Tsenov, BLTP Deputy Director Michal Hnatič, and UC staff member Elena Karpova.

The representatives of the Slovak delegation talked with Dubna reporters.

Peter Plavčan, Minister of Minister of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic: I really liked being here, I talked with young people from Slovakia who perform serious scientific research, and I’d like to say that this Institute plays an important role in further development of cooperation of Slovak scientists with colleagues from other countries.

Peter Žiga, Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic: I came to Russia as the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation as a member of a sizeable delegation that consisted of a hundred people. We asked our Russian partners to provide us examples of effective cooperation between our countries, so they directed us to Dubna. We saw modern laboratories performing physics research. Of course, I’m not an expert, but I’ve had conversations with leaders of JINR and my compatriots and assured myself that highly qualified scientists and engineers are working here. We met with the Slovak national group of JINR staff members and we are very happy that they have the opportunity to work in Dubna, together with colleagues from different countries.

Michal Hnatič, Deputy Director of the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics: Now the Institute employs twenty staff members from Slovakia, who came to Dubna for a period of more than a year. In addition, young specialists arrive regularly for three months to perform research on specific topics. And of course, this is multifaceted cooperation. Very close and fruitful contacts have been established with the Laboratories of neutron physics, theoretical physics, nuclear problems, radiation biology. And we are striving to attract young people who could easily commit their scientific future, scientific life with JINR. The visit of the two Slovak Ministers to Dubna is quite a unique event, because it’s been a long time since members of the Slovak government came here. They came foremost to Moscow to sign important documents, but it was very interesting for them to visit Dubna, find out what we do here, how effective is the use of the membership’s fee of Slovakia, and see if Slovak young scientists work here. We have just met with a group of Slovak staff members, and our guests formed a very good impression of the visit.

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