The 120th regular session of the JINR Scientific Council is being held 22-23 September 2016 in the International Conference Hall.

Participants of the Session are focused on the following topics: preparation of the final Draft of the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR for 2017–2023 (N.A. Russakovich), progress of the NICA project (V.D. Kekelidze), status of the Factory of Superheavy Elements and its future prospects (S.N. Dmitriev). JINR Director V.A. Matveev will make a report.

The chairmen of the JINR Programme Advisory committees will report on recommendations of the PACs for particle physics, nuclear physics and condensed matter physics.

The following scientific reports will be made: P. Giubellino “Latest results of the ALICE experiment and detector upgrade plans”, I. Mitrofanov “Nuclear planetology: space experiments and recent results”.

Participants of the Session will hear reports of young scientists recommended by the PACs: L. Kolupaeva “Matter effect in neutrino oscillations for the NOvA experiment”, P. Nekhoroshkov “Anthropogenic effects on the coastal phytoplankton studied by neutron activation analysis”, E. Zhabitskaya “Analysis of small-angle synchrotron X-ray scattering experimental data from vesicular systems by means of the parallel asynchronous differential evolution method”.

JINR Director V.A. Matveev will award the famous Italian scientists G. Bellini (the National Institute of Nuclear Physics) INFN and the University of Milan) the B. Pontecorvo Prize. The laureatewill make a scientific report “The impact of the BOREXINO results on neutrino and solar physics”. The winners of JINR annual prizes for best papers in the fields of scientific research, instruments and methods, and applied research will be awarded with diplomas.