From 12 to 30 January 2026, the first joint physics school for students from the Republic of South Africa and Egypt will be held in a hybrid format. It is conducted as part of the strategic cooperation between the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and South Africa. For young specialists, this educational event is an important stage of preparing the JINR International Student Practice, which Dubna will host in the summer.
Organized by the Southern African Institute for Nuclear Technology and Sciences, the event is taking place at the iThemba LABS accelerator centre of the National Research Foundation near Cape Town, South Africa. Thirty in-person participants represent 13 universities of the Republic – from bachelors to postgraduates.
The school covers topics such as nuclear and particle physics, radiation biology, materials science, and radiation safety. The scientific programme includes a lecture on the key research areas, flagship projects, and role of the JINR Member States by JINR Director, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov.
An important part of the event are laboratory workshops under the guidance of employees of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions and the Laboratory of Neutron Physics at JINR. Mai Quynh Anh discussed alpha-particle spectroscopy, Ruan Tourar (FLNR) provided an overview of experiments on gamma radiation attenuation, Anuoluwa Makinde (FLNR) conducted a hands-on class on radiation safety fundamentals, and Cao Van Hai (FLNP) introduced the students to gamma spectroscopy. Two more practical classes were organised by NRF iThemba LABS specialists. In addition to lectures and hands-on classes, the educational process includes the preparation of talks and final group presentations.
At the same time, the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology coordinates remote real-time participation in the lectures and seminars for more than 100 students from 34 Egyptian universities.
“There’s a positive trend: the number of active participants is growing every day”, school’s supervisor and coordinator from Egypt Mona Shouman noted. “Many of the invited students are completing their exams. After this, we expect a new surge of activity”. According to the participants’ first feedback, the educational programme is particularly rich and useful in practice.
For JINR, this event fulfils two important tasks. Firstly, it contributes to the training of qualified personnel in the JINR Member States and Partner Countries of the Joint Institute. Secondly, based on the results, the most motivated students will be selected to join the summer session of the JINR International Student Practice. In June, they will receive an invitation to spend three weeks in Dubna working on research projects in the Institute’s laboratories under the supervision of leading scientists.
