Russian Academy of Sciences President Ready for ‘Brainstorming’ with U.S. Colleagues

March 18, 2018 (EIRNS)—The delegation from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) which has been visiting the United States for more than a week, has completed what appears to have been a very successful tour and sets an example of U.S.-Russian cooperation. Commenting on the visit, RAS President Alexander Sergeyev told TASS that the RAS and their American colleagues are ready to hold “brainstorming” sessions.

“We are going back to Russia with a message that, as far as science is concerned, we are still interested in each other and ready for cooperation at various levels. We have agreed to introduce brainstorming task forces into our cooperation,” he said.

They propose to have groups of 10-15 people “gather together for a day or two, or for a couple of weeks, lock themselves away and start discussing a certain field of study, experiments’ results and trends. They work in a brainstorming mode. Then the participants outline plans for the future and decide who will do what,” Sergeyev explained, saying that countries capable of encouraging their leading experts to conduct brainstorms set trends in science.

Commenting on a reversal of a Russian decision taken in 2013, disallowing academic exchanges with other countries’ academies of sciences, Sergeyev said:

“New laws give us a chance to do it, so we hope that we will be granted a budget to that end. We have already made plans to hold the first five brainstorming sessions this year, which will particularly deal with climate issues, space and space medicine.”

The delegation met with the American National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and signed a five-year agreement with them on March 13, marking the 60th year of their cooperation.

“Besides, we discussed two joint task forces with NASA, one of which concerns Venus, and the second one is related to the Moon program. Our American colleagues suggested that the first task force meet in October and the second one next year. Our colleagues from the California Institute of Technology are ready for a brainstorming session on the next generation of gravitational wave detectors,”

Sergeyev said.

The delegation also visited the California Institute of Technology, where they held a meeting with David Reitze, the Executive Director of the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory, which was the first to record gravitational waves in 2015.

The RAS president said,

“We did practically everything we had planned, holding meetings, talks, and signing an agreement. We have made plans for future cooperation with the U.S. Academy of Sciences and NASA. Importantly, despite political and diplomatic tensions with the United States, relations between scientists haven’t changed much. We continue to hold interesting and meaningful meetings.”

Sergeyev pointed to the warm welcome the Russian delegation had received in the U.S. “We didn’t see any change in the attitude of our colleagues.”