The conference in Minsk on 23-27 April - jointly organised by ICRANet and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus - gathered 80 participants from CEI countries, i.e. Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Ukraine as well from other countries (Argentina, Armenia, China, Colombia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia, Taiwan).
The meeting covered various topics including cosmology, relativistic astrophysics, general relativity, elementary particle and nuclear physics, detonations and explosions. This celebration was the third international conference in Minsk dedicated to Ya. B. Zeldovich. Important scientific developments were discussed and the concept of induced gravitational collapse leading to cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts was presented in detail. Ample attention was paid to the role of dark energy in cosmological structure formation on different scales.
The event created an inspiring environment for further scientific exchange and contacts between scientists in the West, those coming from the Russian school of Zeldovich and local Belarussian scientists.
Important meetings also took place during the event. In particular, the discussion between the delegation from ICRANet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus about the adhesion of Belarus to ICRANet deserves mentioning.
A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.
This event was co-funded by the CEI Cooperation Fund.
