Czech Republic

General information on collaboration

Czechoslovakia was one of the founder states of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. The Czech Republic continues its collaboration with JINR. On 1956, Czechoslovakia was one of the 11 founder states of JINR. After its dissolution, since 1 January 1993, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic were recognized as legal successors of Czechoslovakia and became independent JINR Member States. In 1995, the Agreement was ratified and then implemented in 2000 between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research on conferring on the Institute the status of the only scientific organization in the territory of the Russian Federation with the international legal standing.

For more than 60 years of membership of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in JINR, hundreds of Czech staff members have been working in JINR at various positions. More than one hundred doctoral and dozens of candidate theses were defended.

Czech scientists have held or hold high positions in the JINR governing bodies. Thus, JINR Vice-Directors were V. Votruba (1956–1959), I. Úlehla (1964–1967), Č. Šimáně (1973–1977), and M. Gmitro (1986–1988). Moreover, holding the positions of deputy directors of the laboratories, heads of departments and sectors, V. Petržílka, I. Zvára, M. Finger, R. Leitner, R. Lednický, A. Kovalík, J. Kožešník, J. Tuček, I. Wilhelm, I. Štekl, and others made an outstanding contribution to the development of the Institute.

Furthermore, other prominent Czech physicists started their scientific career in the JINR laboratories many of whom then cooperated, and are cooperating now, with Dubna colleagues: J. Kvasil, S. Kozubek A. Kugler, L. Majling, J. Pleštil, I. Procházka, P. Exner, M. Lokajíček, M. Šumbera, V. Vrba, S. Pospíšil, Z. Janout and many others.

The Czech Republic in JINR at present

High qualification allows Czech scientists and engineers to play leading roles in scientific teams of JINR. Since 2006, R. Lednický has been holding the post of a JINR Vice-Director. Dr Lednický is also a member of the JINR Science and Technology Council. I. Wilhelm and S. Pospíšil are members of the Institute’s Scientific Council. There are Czech scientists in the membership of the JINR Programme Advisory Committees (PAC): P. Závada (PAC for Particle Physics), I. Štekl (PAC for Nuclear Physics), and P. Mikula (PAC for Condensed Matter Physics). The post of Deputy Director of the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems is held by a Czech scientist A. Kovalík.

The stimuli for the Czech participation in JINR activities are several dozens of highly trained specialists who live in Dubna and are staff members of the Institute. A team of young Czech scientists, engineers, post-graduates, and students who come to the JINR laboratories for business trips and training programmes for conducting joint research is concentrated around them. Staff members from the JINR Member States, in their turn, regularly go to the Czech Republic for carrying out joint work and participation in international conferences.

Nowadays, 32 Czech specialists work as JINR employees. They are delegated from the Czech Technical University in Prague, the Silesian University in Opava, the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Brno University of Technology, the Palacký University Olomouc, the Higher School of Mining and Smelting of the Technical University of Ostrava, and the Charles University. They work in VBLHEP, DLNP, BLTP, FLNP, FLNR, and LIT JINR. About half of them are aged under 35.

Czech staff members in JINR and Czech scientists cooperating with the Institute take part in all the key fields of the Institute’s activities: fundamental scientific research in the fields of particle physics, nuclear physics and condensed matter physics. They also participate in the development and adoption of innovative technologies. Moreover, the Czech Republic actively participates in the JINR educational programme: groups of Czech senior students regularly pass training programmes in the Institute’s laboratories and carry out their graduation theses and PhDs.

Nowadays, almost all scientific organizations of the Czech Republic engaged in research on nuclear physics collaborate with JINR that not only provides a modern experimental base but also gives access to considerable human and scientific potential. Owing to its status of an international scientific organization, JINR opens to the Czech Republic ways to cooperate with scientific centres from the JINR Member States as well as provides an opportunity to promote high-tech products of Czech manufacturers at the world level.

Brochure describing collaboration between the Czech Republic and JINR in greater details: “The Czech Republic and JINR. Long-Term Fruitful Cooperation and Future Prospects”

  • Richard Lednický
    Executive of the contacts with the Czech Republic, Doctor of Science (Physics and Mathematics), Deputy Director of JINR

  • +7 (49621) 6-51-26

  • lednicky@fzu.cz

Dr. Lednický was born in 1945 in Vítkovice. He graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Charles University in Prague is. He achieved the academic degree of “Doctor of Science” in 1990 for his work on “Multiple Particle and Resonance Production, Spin Correlations”.

Richard Lednický is also one of the leaders of the STAR project at RHIC and the theme “Investigation of nuclear matter properties and particle structure at the collider of relativistic nuclei and polarized protons”. Since 1969 the professional and scientific career of R. Lednický has been connected with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. His main scientific interests lie within experimental and theoretical physics of elementary particles and involve investigations of multiple production of particles, femtoscopic correlations, spin effects, measurement and QCD analysis of nucleon structure functions. Richard Lednický is author of more than 400 papers and reviews in reputable international journals.

Scientific Themes and Projects

The scientists of the Czech Republic take part in the research work on the following themes of the Topical plan for JINR research and international cooperation for the year 2019:

  • Theoretical physics
    (cooperation on 5 themes);
  • Elementary particle physics and relativistic nuclear physics
    (18 themes);
  • Nuclear physics
    (5 themes);
  • Condensed matter physics, radiation and radiobiological research
    (6 themes);
  • Networks, computing, computing physics
    (2 themes);
  • Educational program
    (1 theme).

Czech scientists in JINR are also acting as leaders or co-leaders of several scientific projects and themes.

The co-leader of the “Non-Accelerator Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics” theme (03-2-1100-2010/2015) is Dr. Alojz Kovalík. Dr. Kovalík is also a co-supervisor of the project GDH&SPASCHARM.

A Czech participant in the BECQUEREL project (leader P.I. Zarubin) is Věra Bradnová, the head of the LHEP group. The project involves e.g.: studies of fragmentation and multi-fragmentation processes, or search for manifestations of collective effects with photoemulsion nuclei at various energies.

The Vice-Director of JINR, Dr. Richard Lednický, is member of the Executive Committee of the NICA/MPD project at JINR. He is also a co-leader of the STAR group at JINR (collaboration with BNL, USA) and a member of the Executive Committee for the DIRAC collaboration.

A large group of scientists from the Czech Republic, headed by Prof. Miroslav Finger (Doctor of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics), professor of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague, and a staff member of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna for many years), studies spin effects in hadron–nucleon and lepton–nucleon interactions within the scope of the theme “Study of polarization phenomena and spin effects at the JINR Nuclotron-M accelerator complex”, leader A.D. Kovalenko. Since 2002 extensive physics research has been carried out within the programme for the study of the proton, neutron, and deuteron structure and for precision hadron spectroscopy. Participation in the COMPASS project at CERN is still the main priority of the team headed by Prof. M. Finger. The work on further development of the СMS/LHC electromagnetic calorimetry continues as well. Regarding further cooperation between Czech universities and JINR, the team places its hopes on the JINR plans to implement the NICA–Nuclotron–M project embracing both relativistic nuclear physics research and spin experiments with polarized particles.

Cooperating organizations
Plenipotentiary representative

Since March 2019 the Plenipotentiary of the government of the Czech Republic in JINR is Marek Vyšinka, Ministerial Counselor of the Department of Research and Development of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

Plenipotentiary representative alternate

Docent Ivan Štekl, Director of the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of the Czech Technical University has been approved by the Minister of Education of the Czech Republic as the plenipotentiary representative alternate.

Docent Štekl was born in 1962 in Pardubice. He graduated from the FNSPE CTU with the diploma thesis: “Time base of laser radar”. At the FNSPE CTU, Ivan Štekl also defended his doctoral thesis titled: “Double beta decay of 48Ca”. He was habilitated to Docent in 2005 at the Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia for his work: “Shielding of neutrons and gamma-rays in experiments ATLAS a NEMO”.

Ivan Štekl is internationally recognized expert in the field of radiation shielding and low background technologies. He is a long-term collaborator of the JINR and he is also responsible for the Summer Schools and Practices for the Czech students.

Docent Štekl is author of more than 300 scientific publications with over 4000 citations. He has been investigator or principal investigator of many projects (Center of experimental nuclear astrophysics and nuclear physics; projects INGO: „Non-accelerator astroparticle physics in underground laboratories“; and others) and also a member of many scientific committees (e.g.: Committee for Large Research Infrastructures in the Czech Republic; or Energy Working Group, European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures).

Finance Committee representative

The representative of the Czech Republic in the Finance committee of the JINR is Stanislav Kulhánek from the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic. He holds this position since 2010 and he has been repeatedly re-elected as a chairman of this committee. Stanislav Kulhánek is also a member of the Committee for Collaboration of the Czech Republic with the JINR.

Members of the Scientific Council

Professor Ivan Wilhelm, Rector Emeritus of the Charles University in Prague and former member of the Government Council for Research and Development, has been member of the JINR Scientific Council for many years.

Ivan Wilhelm was born in May 1942. He graduated from the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University. He has become a professor of experimental physics in 1999 at the Charles University in Prague. From 2000 till 2006 he held the position of rector of the Charles University, and he was also elected chairman of the Czech Conference of Rectors.

Ivan Wilhelm is an Honorary Doctor of the University of Claude Bernard in Lyon and the Comenius University in Bratislava.

Professor Wilhelm works in the field of experimental nuclear physics and elementary particle physics. He is an author and a co-author of approximately hundred scientific publications. He has participated in numerous conferences and has been invited to give lectures at many Universities abroad. He is a member of many scientific committees, e.g.: Committee on coordination of the Czech Republic in CERN; Committee on coordination of the Czech Republic in JINR; Association of the European Universities and others. During his fruitful career, professor Wilhelm received many awards, e.g.: Award of Vatican – Pontiff Grigory the Great; Medal of the JINR Committee of Plenipotentiaries; or Award of Knights of the academic palms order of the French Republic.

Professor Stanislav Pospíšil, former director of the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of the Czech Technical University, has been elected to the JINR Scientific Council in the beginning of 2013.

Stanislav Pospíšil was born in 1942 in Přerov, Czech Republic. He graduated from the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University. He defended his doctoral thesis in Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics at the Charles University. In 2009, he has become the Professeur associé of the University of Montreal, Canada.

His main research activities have been: Neutron physics; Nuclear spectroscopy; Instrumentation for nuclear and sub-nuclear physics (strip and pixel detectors, radiation hardness of detectors); Non-accelerator astroparticle experiments; and many others. He is a member of many scientific and international committees, e.g.: Council of the NPI AS CR, Scientific Council of JINR, or IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. He is also an author or co-author of more than 300 publications and he is holding 4 technological patents.

National groups

Over the time, since the foundation of JINR, Czech national group has developed its inner traditions, forms of cooperation and interaction with other groups. The leaders of the national group, appointed by the Plenipotentiary, are playing an organizing role in the life of the national communities.

  • Alojz Kovalík
    Head of the national group of the Czech Republic, Doctor of Science (Physics and Mathematics), Deputy Director of the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems.

  • +7 (49621) 6-58-95

  • kovalik@nusun.jinr.ru

  • Vratislav Chudoba
    Deputy head of the national group, Ph.D. Research Scientist of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions

  • +7 (49621) 6-43-80

  • chudoba@jinr.ru

The afore mentioned persons mediate contacts with the Plenipotentiary, Czech Embassy, Directorate and services of the JINR management. They also participate in solving issues connected with the stay of their colleagues-compatriots and members of their families in Russia, and help to organize their life and leisure. 24 Czech experts are employed in the Institute at the moment. Council of the national groups leaders periodically meets with the representatives of the Directorate to discuss the problems that interest the Czech employees.

National holidays
  • 1 January – Restoration Day of the Independent Czech State; New Year’s Day
  • March/April – Good Friday
  • March/April – Easter Monday
  • 1 May – Labour Day
  • 8 May – Liberation Day
  • 5 July – Saints Cyril and Methodius Day
  • 6 July – Jan Hus Day
  • 28 September – St. Wenceslas Day (Czech Statehood Day)
  • 28 October – Independent Czechoslovak State Day
  • 17 November – Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day
  • 24 December – Christmas Eve
  • 25 December – Christmas Day
  • 26 December – St. Stephen’s Day (The Second Christmas Day)
Events

Contact information on the Embassies

Embassy of the Czech Republic in the Russian Federation:

Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Czech Republic: