Youth and science

Practice is over. Certificates awarded

On 27 September, the second stage of the International Student Practice was completed at the JINR University Centre. Students and postgraduates from universities in Europe, Asia and Africa participated in the Practice. During lectures and excursions, they learnt about the research and facilities of the Joint Institute and in the laboratories, they worked on previously selected educational and research projects. On the last day of the Practice, many curators from the laboratories came to the final speaking of their wards.

I. Zinkovskaya (FLNP): Our project involved simply wonderful participants - Alexa from Serbia and Sang from Vietnam. Sang came here with her samples and before leaving for Dubna, she carried out active and passive biomonitoring. For passive biomonitoring, she collected moss samples around the aluminum plant and also hung bags with moss near house stoves that were fired with wood and coal. The task was to estimate the level of air pollution using moss biomonitors. During the Practice, together with the participants, we determined the elemental composition of these samples and applied statistical methods to process the results. So far, preliminary results have been obtained, but statistical methods show that the elements are very well separated in the samples depending on the type of experiment. Thus, a high content of aluminum was determined in the samples collected near the aluminum plant and a high content of sulfur and phosphorus, that is, elements produced during fuel combustion was found in the samples from the stoves. This is one part of the work that the participants did, they mastered optical emission spectrometry. In addition, they mastered the method of neutron activation analysis: they went through all the stages except for irradiation of samples, since the reactor is shut down today. They listened to seven lectures on the basic scientific areas that our Sector is engaged in.

Alexa came to us, in fact, within the framework of our new Serbian project that we develop in materials science. Since the reactor is shut down and it is important for us to determine the elemental composition of the samples, Sang agreed to take them to Vietnam and hand them over to colleagues at the nuclear centre in Dalat, where they will be irradiated and we will prepare a joint work with Vietnamese and Serbian colleagues. Thus, we also develop cooperation with the nuclear centre in Dalat, where some of our samples will be irradiated.

M. A. Nozdrin (Scientific and Engineering Group of the UC): Students from South Africa and Mexico took part in our project "Practical course in electronics and microwave technology". They learned the basics of electronics and microwave technology: the base of the main electronic components, the basics of microwave technology and learned what types of microwave devices there are. Two more students from South Africa learned about the Medipix pixel detector: this project includes a course on the basics of nuclear physics using an advanced silicon pixel detector. They learned how this detector operates, learned about detectors in general and the basics of nuclear physics: what types of radiation there are, how a detector allows identifying a particle, how different types of radiation interact with matter.

O. I. Streltsova (MLIT): A very talented young man, a graduate student of the A. Alikhanyan National Scientific Laboratory (Yerevan) Vigen Gareyan took part in the project "High-performance computing for scientific and applied problems". We are very happy to cooperate with such participants, for they have good mathematical training, excellent knowledge of physics and they are engaged in meeting tasks close to the subject of our Laboratory - development of numerical methods, including the use of parallel programming technologies, for addressing applied problems. The problem that he began to meet in the project is related to the topic of his PhD thesis. We helped him to clarify the mathematical formulation of the problem, without which we cannot move forward and select numerical methods which we could meet it with. In particular, the issue is related to the use of the finite element method.

What benefit does this collaboration provide for him? Our Laboratory has a large number of computing resources, we have the Govorun supercomputer, a training and testing ground and an ecosystem for deep machine learning and high-performance computing. Vigen began working within this ecosystem that allows him to select application software packages with an eye on further parallelization. He completed the first part of his research in three weeks of practice: he managed to formulate the mathematical model, to understand the finite element method, to meet a number of model problems on our infrastructure and to make some progress in addressing his problem. We hope that he will cooperate with us in future and it will turn into good cooperation in the field of mathematical modeling, up-to-date numerical methods and software packages.

Luanae Spamer (Stellenbosch University, South Africa): The Practice was very useful for me, especially considering my engineering background. In the project "Surface characterization of a modified metal-polymer track membrane" with A. N. Nechaev (FLNR), I learned a lot about materials research, the intricacies of the technological process and other things that are outside my field. Perhaps, it will be useful to me in the future, when I prepare my PhD thesis. I want to use the track membrane as a filtration mechanism on a chip that I develop in my Laboratory. Today, I know how to test and characterize the membrane. And I have made new useful contacts.

How comfortable did you feel at the Institute, in the city?

- At the Institute, many people speak or understand English, so there were no problems, but in the city and at the hotel, there were people who it was "interesting" with.

Alexey Mikhalyuk (Belarusian State University, Minsk): I am a theorist and my place of work is my laptop. Why should theorists participate in such international practices? Firstly, it is communication with other students, future scientists. Secondly, interesting excursions were organized for us. I heard that there is such a science city as Dubna, but I did not know that the NICA collider is constructed here. There were lectures, I am glad that I was able to listen to a lecture on field theory that was especially interesting to me. My project supervisor was Yakov Shnir (BLTP), we discussed the task that I have met over these three weeks. I hope to collaborate with him in the future.

Of the participants, I became closest with the Serbs, we managed to go to Moscow together...

The programme of the Practice included an excursion to Moscow, right?

- And we decided to go ourselves. This is my second time in Moscow, for the first time, I didn't have time to go to the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane. Both the Serbian participants and I really liked it, it's just amazing! I liked the new Tretyakov less. We also visited VDNKh several times and just walked around the city.

Deputy Director of the UC A. Yu. Verkheev: 19 students from South Africa, 6 - from Vietnam, 4 - from Serbia and Mexico, a participant from Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan took part in the Practice. The students from South Africa came to us in June, but decided to participate in this stage of the Practice so that more students from their universities could learn about JINR. During the Practice, a traditional International Day was organized, during which the students learn about the national traditions of the different countries participating in it. It was very interesting and we are glad that after the pandemic, we managed to restore the second, international stage of the Practice.

I can say that the reports were delivered in a warm and friendly atmosphere. And it has also become a tradition.

Olga TARANTINA