Professor Andrey Tanaev, director of ISU Research Institute of Applied Physics, delivered a plenary report at a seminar hosted by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). The report detailed ISU’s participation in JINR projects, outlining their history and future prospects. The seminar took place in Gordon’s Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa, as part of the Second International African Symposium on Exotic Nuclei (IASEN-2024). It focused on the issue of expanding international collaboration within JINR projects, specifically discussing the Baikal-GVD and TAIGA projects. The role of JINR information centers in developing international relations was also highlighted in the report, with emphasis on the particular contribution of the ISU information center.

Professor Tanaev and his JINR colleagues also visited several South African universities (University of the Western Cape, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and University of Cape Town). The physicists exchanged information on research directions and outlined steps for future collaboration in materials science, plasma physics, radiophysics and astrophysics.

Dmitry Kamanin, director of the JINR University Center:

The first JINR information center in the Southern Hemisphere has opened at the iThemba LABS Separated Sector Cyclotron Department. The seminar brought together JINR educational organizations (universities and JINR information centers) that engage young people in science. Professor Tanaev from Irkutsk information center participated in the panel discussion and gave a plenary presentation, which provided a very interesting overview of Irkutsk’s involvement in the Baikal-GVD and TAIGA collaborations. There is reason to hope that new members will join these collaborations through the international communication facilitated by the information centers.