During the JINR’s visit to Mexico, that took place in the last days of May, the delegation got a warm welcome from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where presentations and round tables were organized for two days in a row. The working programme continued in Morelia where the round table with JINR was welcomed at the highest level by the Michoacan University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH).

On Tuesday, 30 May, the JINR delegation held a series of presentations at the seminar centre “Unidad de Seminarios Dr. Ignacio Chávez” of UNAM. This event attracted attention of the researchers and university professors from UNAM, UMSNH, the University of Puebla (BUAP), the National Oncology Institute (INCAN), the Center of Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav), the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), the University of Colima (UCol), the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) and the University of the Americas in Puebla (UDLAP).

Ex-president of the Mexican physical society and a member of the JINR Scientific Council, Dr. Ana María Cetto Kramis, expressed a warm welcome to the JINR delegation along with her appreciation for the Institute’s readiness to be UNAM’s guests for two days and made vows for the visit to be only the beginning of fruitful collaborations to come. The presentations began with opening remarks by one of the organizers of the visit, Dr. Alejandro Ayala, who has been collaborating with JINR on the MPD Experiment on the NICA Complex and chairing the institutional board of this experiment. On behalf of JINR, Director of the Institute Grigory Trubnikov expressed his gratitude for the invitation and the pleasure of being able to make the first steps towards a more extensive cooperation with the Mexican scientific community at UNAM.

Grigory Trubnikov started the round of presentations with a JINR’s overview. The presentations given by the members of the JINR delegation covered a wide range of topics, showing the diversity of JINR activities. They include both research of JINR Laboratories in various scientific areas, including the NICA Megascience Project, and human capacity building.

Grigory Trubnikov commented the results of the first days of the delegation in Mexico City including the visit to CONAHCYT as follows, “We actually agreed that within a couple of months we will try to formulate several joint projects for which people, specific tasks and resources will already be prescribed, and we will support these projects so that this year we will begin preparations for their implementation, and next year these projects will officially start with the support of CONAHCYT and Dubna. We expect that several dozen people will be involved from Mexico in the most serious way in these areas of research”. Dr. Alejandro Ayala in his comment noted, in particular, “The participants of the meeting were not only nuclear physicists, but also specialists from the field of medicine, biology and chemistry. And some of these colleagues are already very interested in establishing specific areas of cooperation, especially in applied fields.”

On Wednesday, 31 May, the JINR delegation had the pleasure of visiting the premises of the School of Sciences (FC) and of the Institute of Physics (IF) at UNAM, where they had two parallel workshops with students and researchers from UNAM. The delegation was welcomed to the IF by its director, Dr. Mercedes Rodríguez Villafuerte, after which they went on a tour around the laboratories, where the JINR delegation was shown what the IF has to offer to its researchers, as well as some of the projects they are working on. After the tour, the parallel round-table sessions took place, where members of the JINR delegation further discussed research and cooperation opportunities at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. One of these sessions was addressed to undergraduate students who posed questions on how to contact JINR, what steps to follow to participate in training and internships at JINR and what are the conditions in JINR.

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During 2 June, an executive round table was held in UMSNH. In addition to researchers, the round table attracted the attention of a number of university students including several high school students planning their future in natural sciences. A good contact between speakers and the audience was established and numerous questions from researchers and students followed each presentation.

A round table started with a short formal opening by the leaders of the Institute of Science and Technology of the State of Michoacán as well as the authorities of the university and the School and Institute of Physics and Mathematics. Dr. Jorge Fonseca, Academic Secretary of UMSNH delivered welcome words on behalf of the rector of UMSNH. After a short overview of the JINR presented by the director of the JINR University Centre Dr. Dmitry Kamain, Dr. Maria Elena Tejeda-Yeomans (UCol), a member of NICA/MPD collaboration, delivered a talk on the “Collaboration between JINR and Mexican institutions”. This talk initiated a first round of questions on the opportunities for students in JINR.

They shared their instant impressions. “The opportunities shown to us to start a career in science are tremendously novel and attractive”, Adrian Alonso López, undergraduate physics student, said. “The different programmes to cooperate with JINR are round and the Mexican scientific community can be strongly favored by establishing scientific cooperation with this Institute”, Julio César Pérez Pedraza, PhD student, added.

On behalf of the organizers of the JINR’s visit to Morelia, the Director of the Institute of Physics and Mathematics Dr. Alfredo Raya (UMSNH) provided the following comment for the JINR media, “We have witnessed a plethora of opportunities for scientific and technological cooperation with the world-class laboratories of JINR. I am proud to observe the tremendous enthusiasm of the scientific community of our state, from students to young researchers and consolidated scientists willing to take the opportunities of collaboration with JINR.”