Российская наука и мир (дайджест)

MOSCOW April 11 (Itar-Tass) -- President-Elect Vladimir Putin presented awards to a group of winners of 1999 state prizes in the sphere of science and technology in the Kremlin on Tuesday. Addressing the scientists, Putin said: "Your accomplishments are convincing evidence of a high level of scientific research in Russia. It is thanks to you that Russia is retaining the status of a great power." "Many accomplishments have already started bringing concrete results. Aside from it, science is a look into the future. We should work for a priority development of science." In accordance with the presidential decree dating September 29, 1999, state prizes have been conferred on groups of scientists and individual authors of some 30 outstanding works in the sphere of mathematics, physics, chemistry, medicine, agriculture, in modern technologies and the Humanitarian sphere.

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ITAR-TASS / April 4, 2000

Moscow conference discusses federal World Ocean programme

На Всероссийской научной конференции по неотложным проблемам защиты и безопасности Мирового Океана обсуждается целевая федеральная программа. Конференция проводится с участием Российской Академии ракетных войск и артиллерии, Военно-морской Академии им. Кузнецова и научно- производственной Ассоциации Специальных Материалов. Программа была одобрена решением правительства от 10 августа 1998года. Она нацелена на комплексное решение проблем при исследовании и эффективном использовании ресурсов Мирового Океана в интересах экономического развития и безопасности морских границ.

MOSCOW,April 4 (Itar-Tass) -- The all-Russia scientific conference on pressing issues of protection and security is discussing the World Ocean federal targeted programme. The conference is being held with participation of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences, the Kuznetsov Naval Academy and the Scientific-Production Association for Special Materials. The World Ocean programme was approved in a government resolution of August 10, 1998 and is aimed at a complex resolution of problems in research and effective use of World Ocean resources in the interests of economic development and security of the sea borders. The Russian Navy is developing within its framework the sub- programme, called Russia's Military and Strategic Interests in the World Ocean. The programme is aimed at coordinating the policy of fleet development to ensure Russia's national interests.Before the year 2002, the Navy is to define the system of state priorities and aims in its development for the next five to ten years. The implementation of the World Ocean programme will raise Russia's status as a great naval power and help it get a qualitatively new fleet.

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ITAR-TASS / April 10, 2000

Roshydromet to hold readings dedicated to meteorologist

Российский государственный комитет по гидрометеорологии проводит чтения, посвященные 90-летию со дня рождения известного ученого и общественного деятеля Евгения Федорова.

MOSCOW,April 10 (Itar-Tass) - On Monday, it is the 90th birth anniversary of Yevgeny Fyodorov (1910-1981), a prominent scientist and public figure. Scientific readings dedicated to his legacy are to be held in the Russian State Committee for Hydrometeorology.
Fyodorov made an outstanding contribution to the practical and s#ientific activities of the Russian hydrometeorological service, to arrangements for and development of new topical fields of chemIstry and to the international prestige of national science. Fyodorov headed the Main Directorate for Hydrometeorological Service to the Council of MiniSters of the USSR from 1939 to 1947 and from 1962 to 1974.
The programme of the scientific readings comprises the following reports: "Reminiscences about Yevgeny Fyodorov" and "Yevgeny Fyodorov in the Development of Polar Research and His Role in the Establishment of Hydro-Meteorological Research in Obninsk".

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Science Monitor, /April 4, 2000, Vol. 92 Issue 92

Bay Area's new startup: Russian democracy.

By Paul Van Slambrouck, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

На этой неделе, студенты из Соединенных Штатов и России соберутся в Университетском городке, чтобы поговорить о том, как может молодежь помочь в сотрудничестве двух стран. Проект называется "Партнеры по демократии: Встреча лидеров студенческого движения России и США" В Стэнфорд приедет 25 студентов из России, чтобы в течение восьми дней встречаться с 15 американскими студентами. Проект будет действовать и после конференции. Цель проекта – создать глобальную сеть молодых лидеров, занимающихся общественной деятельностью. Предполагается, что молодые люди из разных стран будут встречаться в рамках этого проекта ежегодно.

Stanford hosts a meeting of US and Russian college students this week in an effort to create closer ties
On a warm spring day, the menthol fragrance of eucalyptus groves wafts across the leafy campus of Stanford University here. But even more pronounced is the smell of money from nearby Silicon Valley, the lodestar for the young and hungry here at one of America's most elite universities, where students might as well be writing "How to Become a Millionaire Before Your First Student Loan Falls Due." Yet if Stanford is the epitome of what some bemoan as the apathetic and wealth-obsessed culture on American campuses these days, it is proof that a broader social consciousness is also alive. This week, students from around the United States and Russia will converge on this Bay Area campus to talk about community service in their countries. They'll also talk about how the young can help the two countries get along better. It is the only student-led initiative of its kind and proof that some start-ups have nothing to do with commerce. For some of the nation's best and brightest, good works are as attractive as big paychecks.

Network of young leaders

The project is called Democratic Partners: US-Russia Student Leadership Summit, and it will bring 25 university students from Russia to meet for eight days with 15 US students. Democratic Partners will live on beyond the conference and attempt to build a global network of young leaders, all committed to public service, by getting American students and their counterparts from a different country together each year. "It's all about showing that 'for profit' doesn't always mean commercial profit. It can also have to do with public service," says Matt Spence, a Stanford senior and chairman of the program.
Mr. Spence and another Stanford Partners organizer, Stephen Smith, can tick off a number of friends who have joined dotcoms in the Silicon Valley gold rush. Some have done so even before graduating, unable to risk what seem like sure-fire fortunes. People ask what the No. 1 issue on campus is these days, and it's really hard to find anything at all," says Mr. Smith.
But Spence is wary of the word apathetic. "I'm not sure it's apathy. I mean, what is there to be apathetic about? My first political memory is of the Berlin Wall falling, and it just seems like everything since has just gotten better and better." In a time of peace and prosperity, both agree, American students take the peace for granted and look for their share of the prosperity.
Yet Spence, striving to complete a master's degree in international relations during his four years as an undergraduate, says his passion for community service and grass-roots diplomacy has come from inspiring teachers, a summer spent working for the National Security Council (NSC) in Washington, and a trip to Russia. "There is such an opportunity now," says Spence, referring to the fledgling democracies seeking root in Russia and a number of other countries around the globe.
Just by meeting, these students accomplish a diplomatic goal by building relationships and creating a network of young leaders. Spence got a taste of official diplomacy at the NSC when he was involved in the planning of President Clinton's trip to Russia in the fall of 1998. He suggested that Clinton meet with student leaders in Russia. But the trip was overwhelmed by the Russian crisis du jour (the near collapse of the Russian currency) and the meeting with students never took place. "There was a crisis, but there is always a crisis," says Spence, who came away from the experience convinced that a more grass-roots form of exchange, particularly between young students, was the way to go.
Involved in the community
Yet the real meat of the conference is an exchange of ideas and planning for community projects in each country, ranging from legal-aid clinics and a refugee-resource center near the Chechen border, to inner-city employment programs in the United States. One idea proposed for the conference is the establishment of an exchange of military cadets between the two countries, with Russian cadets attending a major American military academy and their US counterparts doing the same in Russia.
Conference organizers have acted like typical Silicon Valley startups and raised seed money. The group raised $120,000 from two venerable Silicon Valley institutions: the David and Lucile Packard and William and Flora Hewlett foundations. Stanford University also kicked in $25,000.
The project drew 125 applications from across Russia, though only 25 could be accepted. The 15 American students come from a variety of schools, including Georgetown University, the US Military Academy, and Williams College. Adding stature to the project, former Secretary of State George Shultz will host a kickoff reception for the conference.
The advisers to Democratic Partners are Condoleezza Rice, foreign-policy adviser to George W. Bush, and Coit Blacker, a former Russia adviser to Clinton.
"We saw this as a unique opportunity to introduce Russian student leaders to democracy in action," says Hugh Burroughs of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. "We were glad to help foster the kind of public-service instinct we see in this effort."

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ITAR-TASS/ April 4, 2000

Russia's first tech support centre open in Novosibirsk

В институте Ядерной Физики Сибирского отделения Российской Академии Наук открыт Центр Технической Поддержки (TSC) под эгидой Российской Государственной инспекции по надзору за ядерной и радиационной безопасностью (SNSI). Цель TSC состоит в том, чтобы обслуживать аппаратуру для учета, контроля и физической защиты ядерных материалов. Учреждение TSC - одна из стадий выполнения Российско-американского межправительственного соглашения, подписанного в июне 1995. Расходы по оснащению TSC берет на себя Министерство энергетики США.
Выбор Новосибирска не случаен. В сибирском регионе SNSI, протяженностью от Омска до Читы, расположено семь - более половины – предприятий по производству ядерного топлива Министерства ядерной энергетики страны, среди них единственное в стране Приаргуньское объединение по производству урана (Читинская область), а также два реактора и два специальных комплекса для переработки и хранения радиоактивных отходов.

NOVOSIBIRSK,April 4 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's first-ever Technical Support Centre (TSC) under the auspices of the Russian State Nuclear Supervision Inspectorate (SNSI) is open here at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The purpose of the TSC is to service instruments for the accounting, monitoring and physical protection of nuclear materials. The establishment of the TSC is one of the stages of the implementation of the Russian-U.S. intergovernmental agreement signed in June 1995. The U.S. Department of Energy bears expenses to fit the TSC out.
Valery Denisov, head of the Siberian District of the FSNI, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday that bilateral cooperation is aimed primarily at refining the Russian national accounting and monitoring systems at enterprises, the production cycle of which is connected with the use of nuclear materials.
Chosing Novosibirsk as a place to establish the TSC was not fortuitous. The Siberian district of the SNSI, stretching from Omsk to Chita, affords seven -more than a half of - nuclear fuel enterprises of the country's Ministry of Nuclear Energy, among them the country's only uranium mining Priargun rock chemistry production amalgamation (Chita Region) as well as two reactors, and two special complexes for the reprocessing and storage of radioactive waste. The American partners have provided 25 sets of newest instruments of so-called non-destructive monitoring, by means of which day-to-day inspections of nuclear materials are carried out within 10 to 15 minutes. The TSC has been established expressly for the purpose of securing that the costly instruments, which excel world analogues in their technical possibilities, are always in servicible condition and are used by SNSI specialists with maximum effect. It is planned to establish three similar centres in Moscow, St.Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg.

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ITAR-TASS/ April 5, 2000

Duma to inquire about state support of biotechnologies

В среду Государственная Дума собирается послать запрос вновь избранному президенту Владимиру Путину относительно государственной поддержки биотехнологии как стратегического направления в развитии Российской науки и наукоемких технологий

MOSCOW Chechnya, April 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The State Duma on Wednesday will consider an inquiry to be sent to President-elect Vladimir Putin "concerning the state support of biotechnology as a strategic direction in the development of Russian science and science-intense technologies." The lower house has expressed concern over the situation existing in Russian biotechnology at a time when "the world market of biotechnological products is intensively developing, and its capacity is increasing by seven percent a year." "There exists a real threat of the loss of biotechnology as a strategic direction in the development of science and science- intense technologies in the country," lower house members declared. The State Duma is due to appeal to Vladimir Putin to take urgent steps towards the provision of state support for Russian biotechnology and biopharmaceutical production and to inform the house about the measures taken

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Canadian Press/ April 05, 2000

HL:New University of the Arctic taking shape

Университет Арктики – это консорциум северных стран и организаций, составляющих "университет без стен". Это будет, в некотором смысле, "виртуальный университет".
Временный совет управления проведет полугодовую встречу в Университете Британской Колумбии на севере Канады 1 мая. Сотрудники будут приезжать сюда с Острова Гренландия, из Исландии, Шотландии, Норвегии, Швеции, Финляндии, России и Штата Аляска, чтобы присоединиться к своим коллегам из колледжа в Юконе, университета Британской Колумбии и других колледжей и университетов на севере Канады. Университет Арктики находится еще в стадии планирования, он не будет иметь традиционного центрального университетского городка, и будет обучать студентов через Интернет и websites

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C Apr 05, 2000 (The Canadian Press via COMTEX) -- The new University of the Arctic will take definite shape in the next 12 months, the dean of arts, social and health sciences at the University of Northern B.C. said Tuesday. "We hope to have a board of governors for it by the end of this year," said Robin Fisher.
The University of the Arctic, still in the planning stages, will not have a traditional central campus, but instead will reach students through the Internet and websites.
"The University of the Arctic is a consortium of northern countries and institutions putting together a university without walls," Fisher said. "It will be, in a sense, a virtual university."
The interim governing council will hold its semi-annual meeting at the University of Northern B.C. on May 1. Members will travel here from Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Alaska to join their counterparts from Yukon College, UNBC and other northern Canadian colleges and universities. Setting up the board of governors for the new university will be one of the top items on the agenda. Other topics at the meeting will be the proposed bachelor of circumpolar studies degree program and other programs being developed for the new university.
The subcommittee dealing with the proposed degree program will meet here April 27-29. The subcommittee will include representatives from Yukon College, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Also taking part will be administrators from the University of Irkutsk in Siberia and the Institute of Economic Problems at the Russian Academy ofSciences centre near Murmansk. (Prince George Citizen)

Продолжение дайджеста за АПРЕЛЬ 2000 года (часть 2)