The 6th Georgian-German School and Workshop in
Basic Science – Ten Years of Georgian-German Science Bridge was opened
at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) on July 7. TSU
Rector, Academician Vladimer Papava, Minister of Education and Science
of Georgia, Tamar Sanikidze, representatives of the German Embassy to
Georgia, Georgian and German academic circles and TSU students attended
the event.
TSU Rector Vladimer Papava said that “during the
conference Georgian and German physicists will discuss modern scientific
achievements. The conference is very important; several agreements were
concluded during the conference, which will bring scientific activities
of Georgian and German physicists closer and what is most important,
this is not the project of only our university: the Georgian Technical
University and Ilia State University are also involved in it. This is a
common state project and I am deeply convinced that it will be
successful.”
Georgian Minister of Education and Science, Tamar
Sanikidze also addressed the participants of the conference: “The
conference is important as the 10th anniversary of mutual cooperation is
marked today. Our universities and German colleagues achieved excellent
results during these 10 years. We think that their relations should be
supported by the state in order to make this relationship more
systematic and long-term. We have already prepared several very
important documents for signing and by this we will support the work
between the consortium of Georgian universities and the Jülich Centre
and other research institutions of Germany.”
“Today we mark the
10th anniversary of Georgian-German scientific cooperation that is a
very important date for us. The Jülich Centre represents the German side
in this cooperation, where Georgian scientists, PhD students are able
to conduct joint research with German colleagues. It is very important
because in the period of globalization it is important that global
groups work to settle global problems, those problems, on which the
Jülich Centre is working,” Head of the Board of Directors of the Jülich
Research Centre, Sebastian M. Schmidt said.
Several agreements
were signed on the sideline of the conference envisaging the creation of
joint Georgian-German MA programs and internships for Georgian students
at the Institute of Energy and Climate Research and the Jülich Centre
for Neutron Science.
Along with Georgian scientists, directors and leading specialists from the Jülich Research C
entre,
as well as professors from the universities of Bonn, Münster, Cologne,
Aachen and Düsseldorf are also participating in the school and workshop.
The first conference was dedicated to Hadron Physics and it was
held in 2004. It was jointly organized by High Energy Physics Institute,
Institute of Nuclear Physics (IKP) at Jülich Centre and UNESCO
International School in Physics and Mathematics. The conference proved
extremely successful; it became traditional and is now held biennially.
The only exception was the year 2008, when the August war between Russia
and Georgia thwarted the conference.
In 2010 the conference topics
significantly expanded and the Georgian Technical University also joined
it. Simultaneously, an idea of Georgian-German Science Bridge
connecting people and knowledge emerged.
The Shota Rustaveli
National Science Foundation makes a significant financial contribution
to the conference. Due to co-financing by this foundation, the
involvement of Georgian students in the research carried out at the
Jülich Research Centre has significantly increased over past years. TSU
students work on their master’s and doctoral theses at the institutes of
the Jülich Research Centre in frames of international collaboration. In
the near future it is planned to create joint PhD programs for
successful PhD students at German universities that will enable Georgian
students to get double degree diplomas.
The Ilia University
will also participate in this year’s anniversary conference. The
conference topics have further expanded covering a significant area of
fundamental and applied research. The representatives from 6 institutes
of the Jülich Research Centre and several universities will also
participate in the conference. It has already been two years that the
TSU Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences launched its cooperation with
the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Bonn University.
The Volkswagen Charitable Foundation provides financial support to this
cooperation. Recently the University of Siegen (Germany) also joined
collaborative activities.
The conference will end on July 12.
