On 30 June, the International School on Nuclear Methods and Applied Research in Environmental, Material and Life Sciences (NUMAR-Gobi 2025) started in Ulaanbaatar. The event is organized by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in cooperation with the Nuclear Energy Commission under the Government of Mongolia, the National University of Mongolia (NUM), and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. About forty Mongolian students at least the third year of their bachelor’s degree, as well as undergraduates and postgraduates, became participants of the school. The lecturers of the school are JINR scientists and the Institute’s partner organizations from Mongolia.

The school is aimed at the comprehensive study of nuclear methods in a wide range of applications and is organized in the form of three courses on life sciences, environmental sciences, and materials science. Each course will start with an introduction to the subject and discuss its development up to the modern studies. The lecturers will discuss opportunities to participate in the work carried out in their research centres.

At the opening of the school, Byambajav Munkhbat (NUM) provided an overview of the achievements of the Nuclear Research Centre at the National University of Mongolia. Head of the JINR International Cooperation Department Otilia-Ana Culicov made a presentation entitled “Mongolia — JINR: 70 years of symbiosis”. LRB Director Aleksander Bugay gave a talk on JINR’s research infrastructure and scientific programme.

The life sciences course will include lectures on radiation biology and medicine, particularly hadron therapy of tumours, radiopharmaceuticals, central nervous system treatment after radiation, high performance computing, and others.

As part of the environmental sciences course, the lecturers will talk about analytical methods in environmental research, nuclear technologies for monitoring the environment and studying cultural heritage sites, new wastewater treatment technologies, the use of artificial intelligence in agriculture, etc.

The materials science course will cover neutron and X-ray scattering for studies of biological systems, molecular dynamics simulations in soft matter research and drug design, structural studies, and radiation hardening of composite materials.

The school will last until 4 July. The working language is English.