INTERREGIONAL CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES
On the history of the Lomonosov Conferences
It was more than twenty years ago when the first of the series of conferences (from 1993 called the “Lomonosov Conferences”), was held at the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Moscow State University (June 1983). The second conference was held in Kishinev, Republic of Moldavia, USSR (May 1985).
After the four years break this series was resumed on a new conceptual basis for the conference programme focus. During the preparation of the third conference (that was held in Maykop, Russia, 1989) a desire to broaden the programme to include more general issues in particle physics became apparent. At subsequent meetings of this series (Minsk, Republic of Byelorussia, USSR, 1990; Yaroslavl, Russia, 1992) a wide variety of interesting things both in theory and experiment of particle physics, field theory, gravitation and astrophysics were included into the programmes. During the conference of 1992 in Yaroslavl it was proposed by myself and approved by numerous participants that these irregularly held meetings should be transformed into regular events under the title “Lomonosov Conferences on Elementary Particle Physics”. It was also decided to enlarge the number of institutions that would take part in preparation of future conferences.
Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765), a brilliant Russian encyclopaedias of the era of the Russian Empress Catherine the 2nd, was world renowned for his distinguished contributions in the fields of science and art. He also helped establish the high school educational system in Russia. The Moscow State University was founded in 1755 based on his plan and initiative, and the University now bears the name of Lomonosov.
The 6th Lomonosov Conference on Elementary Particle Physics (1993) and all of the subsequent conferences of this series were held at the Moscow State University on each of the odd years. Publication of the volume “Particle Physics, Gauge Fields and Astrophysics” containing articles written on the basis of presentations at the 5th and 6th Lomonosov Conferences was supported by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome, 1994). Proceedings of the 7th and 8th Lomonosov Conference ( entitled “Problems of Fundamental Physics” and “Elementary Particle Physics”) were published by the Interregional Centre for Advanced Studies (Moscow, 1997 and 1999). Proceedings of the 9th, 10th and 11th Lomonosov Conferences (entitled “Particle Physics at the Start of the New Millennium”, “Frontiers of Particle Physics” and “Particle Physics in Laboratory, Space and Universe”) were published by World Scientific Publishing Co. (Singapore), in 2001, 2003 and 2005 correspondently (see www.icas.ru _ english _ projects _ conferences _ 9/10/11LomCon _ proceedings).
The physics programme of the 12th Lomonosov Conference on Elementary Particle Physics (August, 2005) included review and original talks on wide range of items such as neutrino and astroparticle physics, electroweak theory, tests of standard model and beyond, fundamental symmetries, heavy quark physics, non-perturbative QCD, quantum gravity effects, physics at the future accelerators. Totally there were more than 300 participants with 108 talks including 31 plenary (30 min) talks, 34 session (20 min) talks and 33 brief (15 min) reports. The Round Table discussion on “Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics” was also held during the last working day of the conference, and the Memorandum (see the web site of the conference) on this problem was worked out and approved by the participants. The proceedings of this conference entitled “Particle Physics at the Year of 250th Anniversary of Moscow University” has been also published by World Scientific Publishing Co. (Singapore), see the contents of this volume on our web site www.icas.ru _ english _ projects _ conferences _ 12LomCon _ proceedings).
Following the tradition that has started in 1995, each of the Lomonosov Conferences on particle physics has been accompanied by a conference on problems of intellectuals. The 4th International Meeting on Problems of Intellectuals has been held during the last day of the 10th Lomonosov Conference (August, 2001). The subject of the Meeting was specified as follows: “International Co-operation of Intellectuals”. The 5th International Meeting on Problems of Intelligentsia held during the 11th Lomonosov Conference (August, 2003) was dedicated to discussions on the issue “Intelligentsia and Education”, the 6th meeting of this series held during the 12th Lomonosov Conference (August, 2005) was dedicated to discussions on the issue “Intelligentsia and Violence: Responses to Repression and Terrorism”.
Alexander Studenikin