Interview conducted in September 2021

Valentin Sadilov – master of physics, junior researcher at the Department of Spectrometers Complex IBR-2

I knew about Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics even before I entered the physics department of Moscow State University. I was born in Dubna and knew that my hometown has two departments of MSU – the Department of Elementary Particle Physics and the Department of Neutronography at the Laboratory of Neutron Physics. I chose the Department of Neutronography and in my third year, I was seconded to FLNP. Four more classmates came with me. The first person who met us and introduced us to the activities of the laboratory was the head of neutron optics sector, Mikhail Avdeev. He talked to us, asked what we were interested in, and, depending on this, assigned us to groups. I said I would like to work with my hands, and got into the REFLEX group under the leadership of Viktor Ivanovich Bodnarchuk. My friend Maxim Rulev got a job in the YMO group and now conducting research at the Laue-Langevin Institute in France.

Now I am working on the REFLEX setup of the IBR-2 reactor and am writing my Ph.D. thesis on the implementation of the spin-echo method on a pulsed source. Our setup is one of a kind since previously this method was used only on stationary sources. As a consequence, we naturally encounter certain kinds of difficulties, but step by step they are being solved.

I think that for anyone who wants to grow as a scientist, there is work here: there are many areas of research and also many applied problems. Users from other Russian institutes often visit us, so I have formed a clear picture of the place of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research among other Russian research centers. We have the obvious advantage in the level of salaries, the ability to purchase equipment and travel on business trips. Since the institute is international and each country makes its own contribution, it is easy to establish international scientific cooperation here. If I could go back in time, I would repeat my path in FLNP!