Paarl nuclear physicist visits Russia
2008-03-19
PAARL BOYS’ HIGH alumni Dawie van Niekerk recently visited Russia as part of a tenday training programme hosted by one of the world’s leading nuclear research groups. He is busy with his PhD studies in nuclear physics at Stellenbosch University. Dawie, together with six other postgraduate students from the Nuclear Physics Group in the Department of Physics, was part of a group of 23 students from across South Africa to visit Dubna in Russia. They received firsthand experience in their research fields as part of the Winter Practice programme of Russia’s Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). The JINR is an international organisation that was established in 1956. It consists of eighteen member countries and 71 partnering institutions in 45 countries, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe. It is one of the foremost nuclear research establishments in the world and is credited, for example, with the discovery of several new elements of the periodic table. The aim of the Winter Practice was to give participants an idea of JINR fields of research and to offer them the chance to meet JINR research teams. Students worked on research projects at JINR facilities and attended lecture courses delivered by leading JINR scientists. According to Dawie it was a valuable learning experience, both academically as well as culturally. “On another level, our group, used to sunny South Africa, had to adjust to rain and snow at temperatures of -10˚C!” “Over the weekend we enjoyed social excursions to Sergiev Posad, the centre of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as Moscow,” Dawie adds. This visit was the result of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between South Africa and the JINR in Moscow in October 2005. The relationship between South African researchers and those based in the Russian Federation was established during the late 1990s. The MOU designates South Africa, through the Department of Science and Technology (DST), as an associate member of the JINR. South Africa’s financial contribution covers its membership fee as well as support for joint projects with JINR. In 2006 an amount of $1 250 000 was earmarked for the collaboration. The DST has delegated the National Research Foundation (NRF) to administer the funds for future projects.
More
News
|
