On 15 January 2025, a delegation from the Saratov Chernyshevsky National State University (SSU) visited the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. The university’s representatives discussed the issues of strengthening collaboration in science and education with the JINR Directorate. In addition, they got acquainted with the scientific infrastructure of the Institute.

The visit started with a meeting between SSU Rector, Professor Alexey Chumachenko and JINR Director, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov. Other participants included Vice-Rector for Research and Digital Development Alexey Koronovsky, Deputy Director of the SSU Institute of Physics Assel Adilova, and JINR Chief Scientific Secretary Sergey Nedelko. The several-decade fruitful cooperation of the Joint Institute and the SSU in research and the training of highly qualified personnel was highlighted.

In 1935, Saratov State University became one of the first USSR universities to open a department of theoretical physics, with Dmitry Ivanovich Blokhintsev heading it for the first two years. After JINR’s foundation in 1956, the department became a pillar for the development of cooperation between Dubna and Saratov physicists. The department split into two (theoretical and nuclear physics, theoretical and mathematical physics) in 1991, which subsequently broadened the scope of interaction areas between the SSU Faculty of Physics and JINR. More than 40 representatives of different generations of Saratov University graduates are successfully working in all laboratories of the Institute. Many of them are leaders in scientific projects and research areas.

In 2021, the Faculty of Physics, the Faculty of Nonlinear Processes, and the Faculty of Nano- and Biomedical Technologies were merged into the SSU Institute of Physics, which, along with educational activities for almost 1000 students, implements a multidisciplinary research programme. The change required updating the topics and ways of organizing cooperation between the SSU and JINR in science, education, modern physics and natural science popularisation (primarily among young people, including secondary school students), and methodological support for school teachers. The meeting participants discussed this large-scale task. Special attention was paid to the prospects of developing mutually beneficial cooperation in fundamental physical studies, restoring the prior level of partnership in some other areas, and finding new areas of interaction, such as medical physics, the application of nuclear physics methods in life sciences, new materials, ecology, and many other areas.

During the day, the Saratov State University delegation visited JINR laboratories and took part in a number of thematic meetings. At the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, the SSU representatives got introduced to the DC-280 Cyclotron Complex and the Nanocentre. The prospects for advancing cooperation in radiobiology and medical physics were discussed in detail during a visit to the Laboratory of Radiation Biology. At the Laboratory of High Energy Physics, the SSU representatives got acquainted with the NICA Accelerator Complex. FLNP Deputy Director Norbert Kucerka spoke about the research topics and the user programme at the IBR-2 Reactor.

A meeting with Saratov State University graduates working at the Institute took place at the Blokhintsev Hall of the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics at JINR. Many of them expressed great interest in creating conditions for strengthening cooperation between JINR and the SSU, along with willingness to engage in joint studies and activities in science and education.

The final point of the programme was a discussion of specific organizational measures, attended by JINR Chief Scientific Secretary Sergey Nedelko, LRB Director of Aleksandr Bugay, and UC Deputy Director Wael Badawy.