The Faculty "Advanced School of General and Applied Physics"

Dean's Office of the ASGAP Institute of Applied Physics, RAS Ul'yanov Street 46 603950, Nizhnii Novgorod Phone: 7(831) 436-03-79 E-mail: tokman@appl.sci-nnov.ru http://www.vshopf.nnov.ru

The faculty the "Advanced School of General and Applied Physics" of the UNN was founded in 1991 (on the initiative of IAP RAS) for specialized training of scientific personnel in the field of fundamental and applied physics. The ASGAP is the base faculty of IAP RAS and IPM RAS. For fifteen years (from 1991 till September 2006) the Dean of the faculty was the Academician of RAS А.G. Litvak (the Director of IAP RAS). From September 2006 the Dean is Professor M.D. Tokman. The Scientific Leader of the faculty is the Academician of RAS А.V. Gaponov-Grekhov (the Scientific Supervisor of IAP RAS).

The Faculty is a unique system of extremely complete integration of the academic science with the higher education. The ASGAP accommodates in IAP RAS, uses the laboratory and information base of IAP RAS and IPM RAS. It is a part of the united Educational-Scientific Center of the University and the Institutes of RAS of Nizhnii Novgorod, and since 2001 it has become one of the most important partners of the Scientific-Educational Center of IAP RAS.
The ASGAP trains specialists in the field of theoretical physics and mathematical modeling of physical processes, plasma physics and physical electronics, radiophysics, solid-state physics and microelectronics, nonlinear optics and laser physics, hydrophysics. According to the international standard of education the students, who have fulfilled the plan of the four-year education, get the qualification of the bachelor and the bachelor degree, those, who have fulfilled the plan of the six-year education, get the qualification and the degree of Master of Physics. The students, who have successfully graduated from the ASGAP, continue their education in the graduate course of IAP RAS and IPM RAS to be given employment to these institutes. The students, who have chosen the field of activity other than science, work successfully in industrial, consulting, commercial companies and banks.

The system of education in the ASGAP is the subsequent development of a well-known system of the Moscow Physico-Engineering Institute, but here much attention is paid to the individual character of education. The ASGAP uses the personnel and material base of the institutes of RAS. The lessons are conducted by invited teachers, there work the leading scientists of IAP and IPM RAS and other research institutes of Nizhnii Novgorod, the best lecturers of other faculties of the UNN and Higher Educational Establishments of the city.

The individual character of education is achieved by the formation of groups with small number of students. 25 students are admitted to the first course. Sub-groups numbering 5-8 students are formed for practical lessons in physics, the English language (at 1 -st –2nd courses students of the ASGAP study English 6 hours a week!) and laboratory works. Each sub-group of the first and the second courses has a tutor, a young research fellow of IAP. Each student of the third-fifth courses is lead by the individual scientific supervisor. The students spend the greater part of time in base institutes, where alongside with spacious educational rooms they have also at their disposal scientific laboratories, exit to Internet; scientific seminars are held there constantly. The main goal of such a system of the scientific personnel training is to educate broad-minded specialists able to work in different fields of modern physics.

The faculty of the ASGAP has a unique body of teachers. The education of about 100 students is performed by two Academicians (A.G. Litvak, V.V. Zheleznyakov) and an Associate-Member of RAS (A.M.Sergeev), more than 30 Doctors of Science and about 30 Candidates of Science; 4 Professors of the HSGAP (A. G. Litvak, V.V. Zheleznyakov, M. I. Petelin and Z. F. Krasil'nik) are the supervisors of the leading scientific schools of Russia, supported by the Grant Council of the President of RF; 6 teachers are the winners of State prizes of RF and the Soviet Union, 12 teachers are the winners of the State Scholarship for the Scientists of Russia, 11 teachers are the Soros Professors, 2 teachers are the winners of Grants of the President of RF for Young Russian Scientists, 2 teachers are the members of the International Association of Mathematical Physics.

The students of the ASGAP baccalaureate, who make normal progress, get the second scholarship (equal to the state scholarship) owing to the sponsor support of the scientific-industrial enterprise «GYCOM», which collaborates with IAP RAS and gives regularly premiums to the winners of the physical-mathematical olympiads, held at the faculty. The students of the magistracy get the paid job in sub-divisions of their scientific supervisors. The students of the ASGAP enjoy the rights of the members of the trade union of RAS workers (a representative of students is a member of the Institute trade-union committee), they enjoy the privileges in visiting sport complexes, they may make use of the polyclinic and the recreation base of IAP RAS.

Although the education process is rather intense, the average advancement of the ASGAP students is the best among the faculties of the UNNS, where they teach both exact and natural sciences. Approximately 10 % of ASGAP students get nominal scholarships (scholarships of the President of RF, scholarships of the Academic Council of the NNSU, different scholarships of the Legislative Assembly and the Administration of the Nizhegorod region). The students of the ASGAP successfully take part in student olympiads in physics, mathematics, informatics and the English language. There are usually not less than 60 % representatives of the ASGAP among the prize winners of university, regional and zone student olympiads in physics and mathematics. The students of the ASGAP form the main body of the UNN team at all-Russia physico-mathematical olympiads and every year get there prize places; representatives of the faculty also take part regularly as a part of the UNN team in international student competitions in informatics.

The scientific work of the students of the ASGAP is closely connected with the studies performed in IAP RAS and IPM RAS. Most senior students take an active part in accomplishing Russian and foreign grants and different scientific projects. As a rule, the usual annual number of scientific papers written in co-authorship with the students of the ASGAP in scientific journals (20 – 30) and Proceedings of Conferences (30 –40) essentially exceeds the number of students of the magistracy of the faculty. The students of the ASGAP get annually diplomas and/or medals at the All-Russian Competition of Scientific Papers of Students, held by the Ministry of Education of RF; this constitutes usually not less than 50 % of all prizes of the UNN in this competition. The graduating students and even the students of ASGAP have been awarded state scientific scholarships for young Russian scientists in the field of physics. The graduates of the faculty are repeatedly awarded the medals of RAS for young scientists; in 1999-2007 12 graduates of the ASGAP got this award in various nominals. In 2003 two graduates of the ASGAP A.A.Balakin and S.A.Koryagin were awarded State Prize of the Russian Federation for Young Scientists for Outstanding Works in the Field of Science and Engineering.

During 1992 – 2007 more than 200 students graduated from the ASGAP, about one quarter of them graduated with honors; approximately one half of the graduates remained at academic institutes to continue their work there.