On the history of the Lomonosov Conferences

 

 

 

          It was more than twenty five 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 6^th 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 5^th and 6^th Lomonosov Conferences was supported by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome, 1994). Proceedings of the 7^th and 8^th 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 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th Lomonosov Conferences (entitled “Particle Physics at the Start of the New Millennium”, “Frontiers of Particle Physics”, “Particle Physics in Laboratory, Space and Universe” and “Particle Physics at the Year of 250^th Anniversary of Moscow University”) were published by World Scientific Publishing Co. (Singapore), in 2001, 2003, 2005  and 2006 correspondently (see www.icas.ru _ english _projects_conferences _ 9/10/11/12LomCon _ proceedings).

 

The 13^th Lomonosov Conference on Elementary Particle Physics was held at the Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia) on August 23-29, 2007 under the Patronage of the Rector of the Moscow State University Victor Sadovnichy. The conference was organized by the Faculty of Physics and Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Moscow State University in cooperation with the Interregional Centre for Advanced Studies and supported by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna), the Institute for Nuclear Research (Moscow), the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (Novosibirsk) and the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Moscow). The Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Russian Agency for Science and Innovation, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Dmitry Zimin “Dynasty” Foundation and the Russian Agency for Atomic Energy sponsored the conference.

The physics programme of the 13^th Lomonosov Conference on Elementary Particle Physics (August, 2007) included review and original talks on wide range of items such as neutrino and astroparticle physics, electroweak theory, fundamental symmetries, tests of standard model and beyond, heavy quark physics, non-perturbative QCD, quantum gravity effects, physics at the future accelerators. Totally there were more than 350 participants with 113 talks including 32 plenary (30 min) talks, 48 session (25-20 min) talks and 33 brief (15 min) reports. One of the goals of these series of conferences is to bring together scientists, both theoreticians and experimentalists, working in different fields, so that no parallel sessions are usually organized at the conferences.  The Round table discussion on “Dark Matter and Dark Energy: a Clue to Foundations of Nature” was held during the last day of the 13^th Lomonosov Conference. The proceedings of this conference entitled “Particle Physics on the Eve of LHC” are now in print by World Scientific Publishing Co. (Singapore), see the contents of this volume on our web site www.icas.ru_ english_ projects_conferences_13LomCon _ 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 4^th International Meeting on Problems of Intellectuals has been held during the last day of the 10^th Lomonosov Conference (August, 2001). The subject of the Meeting was specified as follows: “International Co-operation of Intellectuals”. The 5^th International Meeting on Problems of Intelligentsia held during the 11^th Lomonosov Conference (August, 2003) was dedicated to discussions on the issue “Intelligentsia and Education”, the 6^th meeting of this series held during the 12^th Lomonosov Conference (August, 2005) was dedicated to discussions on the issue “Intelligentsia and Violence: Responses to Repression and Terrorism”. The 7^th International Meeting on Problems of Intelligentsia held during the 13^th Lomonosov Conference (August, 2007) was dedicated to discussions on the issue “Rights and Responsibility of the Intelligentsia”.

 

           

Alexander Studenikin