LAUREATE IN ENGINEERING SOLUTION CATEGORY

A large-scale particle accelerator is a complex and expensive installation whose construction requires joint efforts from thousands of scientists. Accelerating charged particles requires providing them with a sort of race track that would determine their course, which is done using magnetic fields. Today, the strongest magnetic fields are generated by superconductors in low temperatures.

Hamlet Khodzhibagiyan came up with the idea of using a material that would work in liquid nitrogen temperature rather than ultra-low liquid helium temperature, which is much more economical and vastly more efficient. Apart from charged particle acceleration, this solution has paved the way for new electric batteries that will be much more efficient than what we have today, and will enable the creation of massive energy storage systems.

Hamlet Khodzhibagiyan is awarded the VYZOV Prize in Engineering Solution category for developing high-temperature superconducting magnets for high-power energy storage and BSM physics research. His solution has opened up new horizons and enabled a dramatic reduction in energy consumption compared to the existing technology.

Hamlet Khodzhibagiyan was a top-level expert in cryogenic engineering and accelerator science, a recipient of the Russian Government Award in Science and Technology (2010), and the Laureate of the first four JINR Awards. He authored and co-authored more than 150 scientific publications with an h-index of 21, organized multiple international conferences on cryogenics and superconductivity, and registered two inventions.

Hamlet Khodzhibagiyan joined JINR in 1973 and became known as one of the creators of Nuclotron, a superconductive synchrotron based on his groundbreaking superconducting magnet technology. He spent more than 50 years working at JINR, rising through the ranks from Junior Research Fellow to Head of the High Energy Physics Laboratory, and deeply investing himself in the development, creation, operation and enhancement of superconducting magnetic systems such as Nuclotron.