From 22 August to 3 September 2023, an exhibition “Bruno Maksimovich” dedicated to the 110th anniversary of an outstanding Italian and Soviet physicist Bruno Pontecorvo will be held at the exhibition hall of the JINR Cultural Centre “Mir”.

“It is common to address each other by first name and patronymic in Russia, and we, who were, in fact, Bruno’s peers <...>, were not comfortable to call him only by his first name. As for young employees, they considered it simply impossible. Therefore, from our first meeting, I asked Bruno what his father’s name was. “Massimo,” he replied. Then we agreed that we would call him Bruno Maksimovich. From those distant years, he became known in the Russian academic and public circles as Bruno Maksimovich Pontecorvo,” Venedikt Petrovich Dzhelepov, the first Director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems JINR recalled.

The exhibition presents friendly caricatures by Mikhail Bilenky created in 1988, photographs of different years by Yuri Tumanov, and documents of the Memorial Office of the scientist (DLNP JINR).

On the first day of the exhibition, on 22 August, at 6:30 PM, there will be screened a documentary film “Bruno Pontecorvo” directed by Ella Vlasova (“Nauka-video”, 2003). A great scientist is recalled by his relatives, friends, and colleagues, namely his brother, a famous director Gillo Pontecorvo, sons Gil and Tito, a friend and colleague of the scientist Samoil Bilenky. In the film, you can see Bruno Pontecorvo himself. He talked about his teacher Enrico Fermi, and how Fermi and his students made an epoch-making discovery of neutron deceleration. Bruno Pontecorvo was among the students. The filming took place in Pisa, where the scientist was born, in Rome, where he studied, and in Dubna, where he lived most of his life.

The exhibition will be open daily from 1:00 to 7:00 PM, except Mondays. Admission is free.