Yulian Aramovich Budagov (04.07.1932 – 30.12.2021)

Yu. A. Budagov was born in Moscow on 4 July 1932. In 1956, he graduated with honours from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and joined the staff of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research with which all his life-long scientific carrier was connected.

He made an appreciable contribution to development of large experimental facilities and achievement of fundamentally important scientific results, such as study of properties of top quarks, observation of new meson decay modes, measurement of CP-violating and rare particle decay branching ratios, determination of N scattering form factors, observation of QCD colour screening, verification of analytical properties of πр interaction amplitudes and observation of scaling regularities in the previously unstudied field of multiple processes.

The exceptionally wide creative range of his scientific activity most brightly manifested itself during the preparation of new-generation experiments at TeV accelerators. In 1991–1993, he initiated and directly supervised the cooperation of JINR and some domestic heavy-industry enterprises with the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory in Dallas (USA). In 1994, Yu. A. Budagov became involved in the preparation of experiments at the then world’s largest collider, Tevatron, at FNAL and the Large Hadron Collider under construction in Geneva. Under his leadership, a unique laser-based metrological culture for precision assembly of a large massive detectors was developed and highly accurate construction of the large calorimetric complex for the ATLAS experiment was carried out. Yu. A. Budagov devised a system of scintillation detectors with waveshifting fibres for heavy-quark physics investigations at the CDF spectrometer at FNAL. In the experiments at that spectrometer, Yu. A. Budagov and his colleagues measured the top-quark mass with a record accuracy.

He was one of the leading contributors to the preparation of the project of JINR participation in the physics programme for the International Linear Collider, the 21st century’s largest accelerator. Within this project, he was an initiator and organizer of the unique work on the use of explosion welding to make a cryogenic module of the linear collider and development of superconducting cavities.

In the last years, Yu. A. Budagov focused on development of the new-generation precision laser metrology, a promising line of research for prediction of earthquakes and stabilization of the high-luminosity operation of future colliders. Unique new instruments developed under his supervision—precision laser inclinometers allowing the time dependence of angular oscillations of the earth surface to be measured with a record high accuracy in a wide frequency range of 10^-6–10 Hz—are protected by several Russian Federation patents.

Multifarious scientific and scientific-organizational activities of Yu. A. Budagov were successfully combined with training of researchers both for JINR and for JINR Member States. Based on the topics of the research performed under his scientific leadership, 60 dissertations were defended, 23 of which were prepared under his direct supervision. Eight scientists became doctors of science and professors who headed research directions in their teams.

The research results of Yu. A. Budagov were published in the known scientific journals of the Soviet Union, Russia, Western Europe, and the United States and in proceedings of large international conferences. His works were many times awarded JINR prizes in JINR scientific research competitions.

Yu. A. Budagov was awarded with the Medals of the Order “For Service to the Fatherland” 1st and 2nd class, medals “In Commemoration of the 859 Anniversary of Moscow” and “Veteran of Labour”, St. George Medal “Honour. Glory. Labour” 4th class, Moscow Region Governor’s Badge “Gratitude”, and other Moscow Region Government awards. He was awarded with the ministerial badge “Veteran of Nuclear Power Engineering and Industry” and the title of honour “Honorary Staff Member of JINR”. He is also awarded with the Dionysius Ilkovic Gold Medal of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, twice with the Gold Medal of the Department of Physics and Mathematics of Bratislava University, the Gold Medal of Šafárik University in Košice (Slovakia), and the Ivane Dzhavakhishvili Medal of Tbilisi State University.

The memory of the talented scientists and science organizer Yulian Aramovich Budagov will ever remain in the hearts of all those who worked alongside him. 

Directorate of JINR, Directorate of DLNP, colleagues, and students

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