Kaustubh Wadekar and Ritesh Reddy Seri, both third-year integrated MTech Chemical Engineering students of the Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai-Indian Oil Odisha Campus at the IIT Kharagpur Extension Centre, were recently selected for the International Remote Student Training programme newly launched in 2020 by the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, Russia (JINR). Owing to the pandemic, this programme was launched for students across the globe to help them get acquainted with activities of the institute and conduct research projects remotely, without leaving the safety of their homes.
Kaustubh and Ritesh have been selected for the project Optimisation of the solid ISOL method for volatile reaction products of heavy-ion beam reactions. The main objectives of this project are to perform the analysis of the ISOL (Isotope Separation Online) method using experimental data of gathering volatile products, identify the weak and strong points of the solid ISOL method and to propose an upgrade version for MASHA (Mass Analysation of Super Heavy Atoms) installation situated at the JINR campus in Dubna, Russia. JINR has a collaboration with over 23 countries all over the world. Only 26 participants from more than 12 countries have been selected for various projects under this programme after a rigorous and stringent selection procedure by the experts at JINR.
"Due to the pandemic, we got this opportunity as JINR introduced this completely new project this year. We had to go through three rigorous levels of selection before we began analysing data. We were a team of five students, out of which, two are Russian students, who are performing the experiment hands-on on the MASHA installation in Dubna. Using the data from them, we here are analysing the data with the help of different programming software. At the end of the programme, we have to propose an upgrade for the installation. They are scheduled to upgrade the installation in the next two years," Kaustubh explains to us. The current programme is scheduled to end sometime in January 2021. Following the completion of this programme at JINR, Kaustubh and Ritesh are expecting opportunities to pursue their further studies there or even get selected for longer scientific research programmes at JINR.
The INTEREST programme was launched in September 2020 by the JINR University Centre for students from all over the world. JINR like the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is an international intergovernmental organisation, a world-famous scientific centre that is a unique example of the integration of fundamental theoretical and experimental research in Nuclear, High Energy Physics and other allied sciences. JINR is a multidisciplinary international centre for fundamental research in nuclear physics and related fields of science and technology implies efficient use of the theoretical and experimental results, as well as methods and applied research at JINR in the sphere of high technology through their application in industrial, medical and other technical development.
