From 23 to 27 June, the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics at JINR is hosting the South Africa–JINR workshop on theoretical and computational physics, following the events that were held at the Institute last week as part of South Africa Days at JINR.

In his welcome speech, BLTP JINR Director Dmitry Kazakov stressed the importance of the link between theoretical and experimental physics. Deputy Director and Coordinator of Cooperation with JINR of the iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences, Rudolf Nchodu, and Mantile Leslie Lekala (University of South Africa) made introductory remarks as well. Professor Lekala expressed hope that the meeting would contribute to the development of the JINR–RSA increasingly close cooperation. He noted that since JINR and South Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2005 and held the first such meeting in 2007, more than 500 students have been trained throughout South Africa. JINR University Centre Director Dmitry Kamanin thanked the NRF: iThemba Labs leadership for coordinating JINR–South Africa cooperation over the years. He noted that this year, the Joint Institute is hiring six graduate students from South Africa for a period of three years.

The conference’s scientific programme includes talks on nuclear structure, particles and quantum fields, atoms and their interactions, solid state theory, and artificial intelligence methods. The speakers focus on reviewing the key ideas of their scientific fields.

This workshop is part of a series of biennial joint events that have been hosted alternately by Dubna and South Africa since 2007. Over the years, the number of the workshops’ topics has significantly increased, reflecting the growing number of joint research projects.