Research Institute of Applied Physics
Address: 20 Gagarin Blvd, Irkutsk
Contacts: tel. +7 (3952) 33-21-70
Website: api.isu.ru
E-mail: director@api.isu.ru
Between 1947 and 1969 the Physics and Chemistry Scientific Research Center was housed at the university. In 1966 the Ministry of Higher and Technical Education of the RSFSR created the laboratory of luminescence and the electro-luminescence of crystalline substances as part of the department of experimental physics. In 1970 out of these two subdivisions of the university the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Physics at ISU was organized.
The most famous project undertaken by this institute was the creation of the Baikal deepwater neutrino telescope, currently located in the southern part of Lake Baikal. The telescope was made to conduct research on muon streams and high energy neutrinos in the makeup of cosmic rays and in the research for rare processes and new types of element particles, for example massive particles, candidates for the role of dark matter.
Today the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Physics at ISU is run by Nikolai Mikhailovich Budnev, Doctor of mathematical physics; member of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the field of cosmic rays; head of the ISU group for the following international collaborations: Baikal, Tunka, Tunka-HiSCORE, MASTER; head of the research and educational group “Complex Interdisciplinary Research of Natural Processes in Major Projects (the Baikal neutrino telescope and the scientific outpost “Tunka” and the educational science research center “Baikal.”
The institute is one of the most outstanding research centers in the entire region: it is mobile, modern, and more than capable of carrying out world caliber projects.
Fundamental research is carried out in the field of astrophysics of high energies, radio-physics, condensed-state physics, Earth science, in addition to applied research for the development of spectral methods in the diagnostics of engines, the isolation of diamonds, etc., the results of which are under the protection of international patents.
In 2013 our scientists won a large grant of 90 million rubles from the Ministry of Education and Science. The goal of the project that the money has been earmarked for is the search for and study of galactic accelerators using methods of gamma and cosmic ray physics at a record level of sensitivity. At the ISU research center in the Tunkinsk valley, the world's largest gamma telescope “Tunka-HiSCORE” is under construction.
