The regular meeting of the international Machine Аdvisory Сommittee (MAC) on the NICA project was held in the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics JINR on 22-23 May 2017. The permanent members of the Committee are leading specialists in accelerator technology – specialists in the design and development of large accelerator complexes from the largest scientific centers of Russia and the world.

The meeting was attended by ten members of the MAC, including Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Grigory Trubnikov. At the beginning of the meeting, JINR Director Victor Matveev made a welcoming speech. This was followed by necessary organizational procedures: Markus Steck (GSI, Germany) was appointed acting Chairman of the MAC (prior to the approval by the JINR Scientific Council) and the former Chairman of the Committee Boris Sharkov (now working as a Deputy Director of JINR and not eligible to chair the Committee due to this status) was appointed a representative of JINR in the MAC.

“The MAC has heard 21 reports, – Scientific Director of the NICA project, Advisor to the JINR Directorate Igor Meshkov said. –The results of the implementation of the NICA project over one and a half years (since the previous meeting – ed.) were presented. It is pleasant to note that four reports were made by young participants of the project.”

Igor Meshkov also informed: “Following the milestones of discussion of reports and excursion to the Collider construction site, the MAC noted the significant progress in the implementation of the project, formulated a lot of comments and suggestions for further project development, approved appointment of a specialized group for calculation of beam dynamics in accelerators and recommended colleagues from Russian accelerator centers to be involved in this group, primarily, from the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics. At the conclusion of the meeting, it was decided to hold meetings of the MAC annually.”

Alla Altynova