Springer Journal Physics in Perspective has just published an article covering Novosibirsk and Akademgorodok in their scientific aspect under the title . We have met one of its authors, Alexander Apolonskiy.
- What are the purpose and the expected audience of this article coming from one of the most well-known publishing houses?
- Following the first NSU Congress in 2013, I was elected to the Council of the NSU Alumni Association and wanted to contribute a real value to its activities by furthering NSU's interests and image in the West. This was an exceedingly ambitious undertaking, however I only realised this after multiple fruitless efforts to get it going. Vladimir Shiltsev, one of the most active participants of the NSU alumni movement, suggested that I write an article on Akademgorodok for the Springer's popular science journal Physics in Perspective. He knew the Journals' Editor and at the time was authoring together with him an article on the scientific Arkhangelsk. While conducting a search of the available literature on the subject, I discovered, much to my surprise, that neither the history of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences nor its many achievements were represented internationally in books or periodicals. This inspired me to set about writing the suggested article in earnest. I am very happy that the article was finally published with support of the Soyuz Alumni Association. It is now freely available on-line in full colour to anyone, not just to the journal subscribers. I sincerely hope that it will be of value to international scientists and students in physics who consider visiting Russia and the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. It might also turn out instructive to those who still believe that bears roam the streets of Siberian cities.- Who helped you to author this article?
- I began by looking for Russian books on the subject, with the view to adapt some of their material for the article, but I could not find anything. Then I contacted Natalia Kupershtokh, a senior researcher at the Institute of History SB RAS and who is the author of several books as well as numerous articles devoted to the history of SB RAS and the leading personalities of the Siberian scientific life. She wrote the historical part of the article and arranged the material in the form of a virtual tour of Akademgorodok. I added a narrative on the world-leading scientific achievements of each of the institute within SB RAS. We provided a deep historical overview starting with the expedition of Ermak and substantiated the contention that the development of science in USSR cannot be considered in isolation from the international affairs. Essentially, this latter aspect gave rise even to the very founding of Akademgorodok. Regretfully, though, the Journal editors asked us to remove these last points from the manuscript.
- How important is this article for NSU and its development?
- I am confident of its significant importance. Since we are aiming at internationalisation of NSU and taking it to the list of world's top 100 universities, we must develop the university's image among both international matriculants and visiting scientists, as well as among leaders of parallel laboratories . Now that it is out, this article can be used as an aid in attracting people we value. However you think of it, Akademgorodok is a unique phenomenon in the world, and first of its kind. We have tried our best to powerfully demonstrate this in our article by giving an account, though necessarily brief, of the NSU's history and by including photographic material about both the existing buildings of the university and the new premises currently under construction.
- What are the next steps in your undertaking?
