Republic of South Africa

The Agreement of cooperation, which provided favorable conditions for further development of collaboration in the fields of nuclear physics between JINR and the RSA, was signed in 1994. Professor Vladimir Borisovich Belyaev from JINR and Professor Harry Fiedeldy from the University of South Africa (Pretoria) actively participated in its preparation. As a part of the agreement, cooperation and exchange of visits was implemented at the beginning of the 2000s in four directions: “Nuclear theory”, “ALICE: Large Collider Experiment on the LHC Heavy Ion Beams”, “Nuclear Physics with Neutrons – Fundamental and Applied Investigations”, “Computer Physics for Theoretical and Experimental Research”. The organizations cooperating with JINR in these fields were the Universities of Pretoria and Cape Town.

Signing of the Agreement on Associate Membership of the Republic of South Africa in JINR with Minister of Foreign Affairs of RSA N. Dlamini-Zuma, 5 October 2005

A new period of partnership started in 2004 when Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of South Africa in the Russian Federation Mochubella Jacob Secku and Director General of the International Resources of the Department of Science and Technology of the Republic of South Africa (DST) Dr. Neville Arendse visited JINR. The stimulated further development of scientific cooperation, and on 5 October 2005, in Moscow, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research was signed. The aim of this Memorandum was the development of mutual collaboration between the DST and JINR in the sphere of scientific and technological research.

On 14 February 2006, the meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee of the DST and JINR took place. According to the decision of the first session, the total contribution of the RSA to JINR in 2006 would be 1250000 USD. The part of this sum (20%) had to be spent for the development of the infrastructure of JINR. The contribution was distributed proportionally among the five priority fields of research: grid-technologies and theory, investigations on neutron beams, heavy ion physics, hadronic therapy, and also the work connected with the spherical fuel element reactor with the helium carrier. For the optimal distribution of financing among priority research fields, both sides appointed the coordinators of work and persons responsible for the general coordination of collaboration. It was decided that young scientists, postgraduate students, and students from RSA should take part in all scientific programmes.

In February 2007, the first joint symposium of UNISA (the University of South Africa) and JINR “Models and Methods for research of few-particle and multi-particle bodies” took place in Pretoria. It was mainly devoted to the problems of nuclear physics studied within the framework of collaboration between JINR and the DST of SA, but it also touched the issues of particle physics, atomic, molecular physics, computing and mathematical physics. The second symposium “Models and Methods for research of few-particle and multi-particle bodies” (September 2010) gathered specialists of several universities of RSA, namely UNISA, University of Stellenbosch, University of Pretoria and some others, as well as scientists of the Bogoliubov and Flerov laboratories of JINR. The subject of the symposium was devoted to the new tendencies in the development of theoretical and experimental nuclear physics.

Since 2007, practical training for students and postgraduate students of the Republic of South Africa has been held in Dubna. About 30 students accompanied by their professors come every year to Dubna. The lectures on scientific studies held in JINR are read by the leading scientists of JINR. For example, in 2009 the lectures were held by A.V. Belushkin, E.A. Krasavin, V.N. Shvetsov, A.G. Popeko, G.V. Mitsin, etc.