Vadim Aleksandrovich Bednyakov turns 60
October 31, 2017 marks the 60th birthday of Prof. V.A. Bednyakov, Director of the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems, Doctor of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics), coordinator of JINR participation in the physics programme at ATLAS, and author of a number of popular-science articles.
Scientific interests of V.A. Bednyakov are quite wide, embracing elementary particle physics and physics of neutrinos and rare processes, where he carries out successful studies. One of his main research topics is detection of dark mater particles in laboratory experiments. Together with S.G. Kovalenko, he actually laid down a theoretical basis for these researches at JINR. Now he is a leading expert in this field in Russia. Another important line of his research is the search for manifestations of physical phenomena beyond the Standard Model that may allow observing supersymmetry both at extremely high collider energies and in low-energy processes and astrophysics. In 1999, on the basis of the works in those two fields, V.A. Bednyakov defended his doctoral dissertation “Investigation of a possibility of observing supersymmetry in rare processes in cosmology”. His works on detection of galactic dark matter particles on the Earth and in space are widely known not only in Russia but also in the world.
V.A. Bednyakov is an author of more 450 scientific works performed both by himself and within the ATLAS collaboration. He translated into Russian a few textbooks on non-accelerator physics and astrophysics and wrote a number of popular-science articles. Since 2004, by order of the JINR Directorate, he has been in charge of the JINR participation in the ATLAS physics program at the CERN’s LHC. He is a leader of the ATLAS theme at JINR and the leader of the JINR team in the ATLAS collaboration. Under his supervision a number of new ATLAS research themes were proposed and adopted by the collaboration with the corresponding studies being now carried out by the JINR team and other participants in the collaboration.
After his election as DLNP Director in 2013, V.A. Bednyakov formulated the main points of the new JINR Neutrino Programme, which brought the currently topical researches in neutrino physics and astrophysics to the leading position in the JINR research programme. Within this Programme, a new basic facility at JINR became a deep underwater neutrino telescope al Lake Baikal ((BAIKAL–GVD project), supported by scientists of DLNP and JINR as a whole.
In 2014, under supervision of V.A. Bednyakov, the DLNP Directorate launched major reconstruction of the DLNP infrastructure, including planned renovation of buildings and structures and technical re-equipment (machine-tools, instrumentation, etc.).
For over 15 years V.A. Bednyakov was the Scientific Secretary of DLNP and later, being the Deputy Director of DLNP for Science, he held concurrently the position of the Deputy Chief Scientific Secretary of JINR until his election as the DLNP Director in 2013.
V.A. Bednyakov is a member of the Organizing Committee for a series of international conferences on new physics in non-accelerator experiments (NANP) and the editor-in-chief of their Proceedings. He is also a member of the editorial boards of the journals Nuclear Physics and Physics of Particles and Nuclei, a referee in a number of prestigious international scientific journals, and an expert of the RFBR and RSF.
V.A. Bednyakov is a member of the Dissertation Councils of DLNP (since 2000) and BLTP (2002–2007). He also takes part in the activities of the Science and Technology Councils of DNLP and LHEP (till 2014) and the Commission for the Academician B. Pontecorvo Prize for Young Scientists of DNLP. He is the Secretary of the JNR Jury for Awarding the V.P. Dzhelepov Prize and the Secretary of the Neutrino Council of the Russia Academy of Sciences.
Current scientific interests of V.A. Bednyakov lie mainly in the fields of particle physics, neutrino physics, and astrophysics. Many-year administrative experience, sociability, serious theoretical education, and wide scientific interests allow V.A. Bednyakov to successfully combine the research and scientific-organization activities.
V.A. Bednyakov was five times the winner of the JINR Prize (1985, 1999, 2005, twice in 2016). He is awarded the Labour Merit Badge “Veteran of Nuclear Power Engineering and Industry” (2007), Honorary Certificate of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (2009), Honorary Certificate and Medal of the Moscow Oblast Duma (2013), and Honorary Certificates of JINR (2012) and Head of Administration of Dubna (2013, 2015).
We heartily wish Vadim Aleksandrovich happy birthday, good health, advances in research, and prosperity!
JINR Directorate, DLNP Directorate, friends, and colleagues
