The International seminar dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Synchrophasotron start-up and the 110th anniversary of V.I. Veksler was held on 21 April 2017 in the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics, JINR. JINR Vice-Director, Professor M.G. Itkis made a welcoming speech on behalf of the JINR Directorate.

“We all know that the outstanding physicist Vladimir Veksler discovered the principle of phase stability which is the basis for all the relativistic accelerators, – VBLHEP Director Professor V.D. Kekelidze noted in his speech. – It is the greatest discovery that is inseparably associated with our Laboratory. In 1957, our legendary Synchrophasotron was launched, at that time it was the leader of the energy, as for today, the Large Hadron Collider is. The 10 GeV energy level was overcome for the first time, and the era of high energy physics started… For 60 years, the Laboratory community has worked up its glorious way, full of discoveries and significant scientific achievements. Today, successful research in advanced scientific fields is being conducted in the Laboratory. The Laboratory looks into the future with confidence.”

The report of the VBLHEP Director “From the Synchrophasotron to the NICA project” was presented as a review of the the most significant scientific discoveries and research of the Laboratory over the 60 years and work which is being carried out nowadays, including collaboration with other scientific centers of the world. A detailed report was devoted to the NICA project, which became the flagship project of the entire Institute, and raised interest of the entire scientific community. It is being successfully implemented at the VBLHEP site.

The seminar continued with memorial and scientific reports of staff members of the Laboratory and foreign guests, after which the ceremonial opening of the square named after V.I. Veksler was held.

Galina Myalkovskaya, JINR Weekly Newspaper