SPbU representatives on the NICA mega science project implementation

The NICA collider  is the first large-scale accelerator project implemented in Russia within the framework of the state programme aimed at the creation of mega science large research facilities. The extensive programme of scientific experiments to be carried out on the new Russian collider has been designed for many decades.

A large number of professionals such as highly qualified scientific and engineering personnel is required for the construction of the complex, its further use and carrying out of research. SPbU Professor Dmitry Ovsyannikov, chair of the conference organising committee, spoke about the JINR staff training opportunities at St Petersburg University. "The University has been successfully implementing a master's educational programme titled "Information Technology and Nuclear Technology". In addition, a department of the same name based in Dubna has been created at SPbU. Unique staff will be trained here, including personnel for the NICA project," the scientist said. "Our students have long had internship placements in Dubna and have shown great performance."

Dmitry Ovsyannikov also noted that the role of St Petersburg University in the implementation of this large-scale project is not limited to the training of specialists only. For example, SPbU scientists are developing software for the Nuclotron, one of the main elements of the accelerator complex.

Let us remind you that just a few days ago, SPbU physicists announced the creation of a new charmed particle detector for CERN. The technologies of radiation-transparent vertex detectors proved to be in great demand in the newly built NICA collider complex.

JINR Vice Director and SPbU Professor Grigory Trubnikov, head of the NICA project and Academician of Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the project of this scale can be implemented only by joint effort of schools of thought and unique technological industries as well as the leading research centres of our country and the world. "This is truly an international mega science project," the scientist said. "Scientists from 26 countries based at JINR in Dubna are currently working on the creation of a complex." The academician noted that the RAS Institute for Nuclear Research, National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute" (Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Institute of High Energy Physics, St Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics), Rosatom institutes, MSU Research Institute of Nuclear Physics, St Petersburg University and the RAS G. I. Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics are among the Russian organisations playing an important role in the implementation of the project.

Reference

NICA is a mega science accelerator complex created on the basis of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. The main objective of experiments on the new collider is studying of the properties of dense baryonic matter, quark-gluon plasma (state of matter in which our universe remained in the first moments after the Big Bang). In addition, it is planned to use the NICA complex bundles for research in the field of materials science, nanotechnology and picotechnology, medicine, biology, electronics, nuclear energy and safety, cryogenic and superconducting technology, as well as n the Russian Space Agency programmes. Scientists from 70 institutions of 26 countries are engaged into the creation of the complex.