Март 2003 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• A Challenge to the World's Scientists
• The Global Energy Foundation organized the Nobel Laureates Meeting «Sciences and mankind progress» in St. Petersburg
• InnoCentive to Host Global Conference at Moscow State University Featuring More than 600 World-Class Scientists
• An Eternal Fluorescent Protein?
• U.S. Project Prometheus to Gain Russian Nuclear Rocket Fuels
• Russians, Ukranians visit Permian Basin to learn energy industry developments from the experts
• New battles loom over Russia's great lake
• Reducing the Nuclear Threat
• CeBIT America Sets Stage for U.S. Alliances with the Russian Technology Community
• Nuclear Solutions, Inc. Opens Moscow Office
• Unusual robot awaits export to U.S.
• Drought busters
• U.S., Russia Quietly Testing Dirty Bombs
• Have No Fear, a Tsunami Will Not Appear
• A Rocket Ride Up the Corporate Ladder
• Local ecological catastrophe
• Women are from Venus but Men are to Land on Mars, say Russians

Science has contributed immensely to human progress and to the development of modern society. The application of scientific knowledge continues to furnish powerful means for solving many of the challenges facing humanity, from food security to diseases such as AIDS, from pollution to the proliferation of weapons. Recent advances in information technology, genetics, and biotechnology hold extraordinary prospects for individual well-being and that of humankind as a whole.
At the same time, the way in which scientific endeavors are pursued around the world is marked by clear inequalities. Developing countries, for example, generally spend much less than 1 percent of their gross domestic product on scientific research, whereas rich countries devote between 2 and 3 percent. The number of scientists in proportion to population in the developing countries is 10 to 30 times smaller than in developed countries. Ninety-five percent of the new science in the world is created in the countries comprising only one-fifth of the world's population. And much of that science - in the realm of health, for example - neglects the problems that afflict most of the world's people.
This unbalanced distribution of scientific activity generates serious problems not only for the scientific community in the developing countries, but for development itself. It accelerates the disparity between advanced and developing countries, creating social and economic difficulties at both national and international levels. The idea of two worlds of science is anathema to the scientific spirit. It will require the commitment of scientists and scientific institutions throughout the world to change that portrait to bring the benefits of science to all.
But no bridge that science might build across the gaps between rich and poor is strong enough to withstand the force of violence and war. If science is to reach its full potential and draw on the great minds from every country, we must do more to end and prevent conflict. Scientists themselves have a key role to play here, too. The Pugwash Conference movement, launched by the Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955, brought Russian and Western scientists together for more than 40 years to develop common understandings of the dangers of nuclear war and ways of reducing them, and in recent years has constructed a strong dialogue between North and South on the problems of development. "Lab-to-lab" cooperation also helped to lay the groundwork for cooperative nuclear disarmament and arms control between Russia and the United States after the Cold War. Peacemaking and peacebuilding should never be the exclusive preserve of diplomats and politicians.
There are deep similarities between the ethos of science and the project of international organization. Both are constructs of reason, as expressed, for example, in international agreements addressing global problems. Both are engaged in a struggle against forces of unreason that have, at times, used scientists and their research for destructive purposes. We share the experimental method; the United Nations, after all, is an experiment in human cooperation. And both strive to give expression to universal truths; for the United Nations, these include the dignity and worth of the human person and the understanding that even though the world is divided by many particulars, we are united as a single human community.
The scientific community's basic concern for human welfare makes it an indispensable partner of the United Nations. With your help, the world can achieve the "blue revolution" it so urgently needs to deal with current and emerging water crises. Your research can enable Africa to move toward a "green revolution" that will boost agricultural productivity. Your solidarity can help developing countries build up their capacity to participate effectively in negotiations of international treaties and agreements involving science. And your advocacy can help bring about a breakthrough in access to scientific knowledge; for example, through the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative, under which scientific journals are provided to thousands of developing-country institutions, free of charge or at a steep discount.
The agenda is broad and the needs immense, but together we are equal to these challenges. The United Nations system and I personally very much look forward to working with scientists throughout the world to support your work and spread its blessings even further, even deeper, in the years to come.

The Global Energy Foundation with the St. Petersburg Science Center of Russian Academy of Sciences, the Alferov Foundation organized the Nobel Laureates Meeting "Sciences and mankind progress" St. Petersburg.
The Nobel Laureates Meeting in St. Petersburg is the initiative of Zhores Alferov, Academician, Nobel Prize winner. The "St. Petersburg Meeting" will be held on June 16-21, 2003, at the height of the "white night" season.
For the first time in the modern history of science prize-winning, 25 laureates of Nobel Prize, the top-prestigious prize, will meet each other in Russia under the science program within St. Petersburg 300th Anniversary celebrations. More than half of them have never been in Russia or St. Petersburg.
Many well-known scientists from Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, USA, Taiwan, Switzerland and Japan have already expressed their consent to attend to this unprecedented event. The largest delegation to attend will come from USA (12 Nobel Prize laureates in economy, physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine).
The program of the 5-day meeting is made up basing on ideas put forward by the invited foreign scientists. It includes public lectures to be read by the Noble Prize laureates and "round tables" dedicated to the following 7 topics: "Physics and Physico-Chemistry", "Energy", "Cosmology Today", "Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Its Applications", "Life Standard Economy", "Regulation in Biological Systems" and “Prionic Hereditary System: a New Paradigm. Along with the Nobel Prize laureates, the round tables and panel discussions will be attended by the leading Russian scientists and specialists. It is expected that young audience - students and post-graduate students of the leading St. Petersburg-based universities and academic institutes and young foreign scientists - will be prominent among the audience of the lectures and discussions. The Nobel Laureates Meeting in St. Petersburg is organized as sponsor-funded. VOLVO Concern of Sweden is the General Sponsor. "Aeroflot - Russian Airlines" Company is the official air transport carrier of the St. Petersburg Meeting guests and participants. Among information partners of the St. Petersburg there are many Russian mass media, both federal and St. Petersburg-based - TV "Rossija" and "Kultura", "Radio Rossija", "Rosbisnesconsulting" agency, "Kompania’ magazine, "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", "Poisk", "St. Petersburg’ Vedomosti", Lenta.ru.

ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS, Mar 18, 2003 (CCNMatthews via COMTEX) -- Unprecedented Gathering of Top Russian Scientists will discuss Collaboration with the Global Chemistry and Biology Communities InnoCentive(R) today announced that together with the Chemical and Biological departments of Moscow State University (MGU), it will be hosting a landmark conference titled "InnoCentive Global Project: A Unique Opportunity for the Russian Scientific Community." The event will be held at Moscow State University, the country's largest and most prestigious national university, on March 20 and will include lectures from 13 key chairs of the Chemical Department of Moscow State University, InnoCentive senior executives and scientists, and scientists from Eli Lilly and Company.
"Russia represents an integral segment of the worldwide scientific community. We are pleased to be furthering the InnoCentive mission of accelerating scientific innovation at this landmark event at Moscow State University," said Darren J. Carroll, chief executive officer, InnoCentive. "The scientists gathered here today can benefit both intellectually and financially by gaining access to the InnoCentive Challenges(TM) posted by eminent global corporations."
This event will be the largest gathering of Russian academicians to date, including conference moderators Victor A. Sadovnichii, academician, and rector of Moscow State University and Valery V. Lunin, academician, and dean of the Department of Chemistry at Moscow State University. Over 600 world-class scientists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Germany and the U.S. will discuss how InnoCentive's online incentive-based research and development (R&D) community enables scientists to receive financial rewards and world-wide recognition for their scientific ingenuity regardless of their nationality, location or title. Dr. Alpheus Bingham, chairman of the board of InnoCentive and vice president of e-Research and Development at Lilly, will also be awarding five InnoCentive-sponsored academic scholarships to top students in the MGU Chemical Department. "InnoCentive gives scientists from Moscow State University the opportunity to potentially receive global recognition and reward for their ingenuity and merit. It is with great pride and excitement that we welcome representatives from InnoCentive and Lilly to our university," said Valery V. Lunin, academician and dean of the Department of Chemistry at Moscow State University.
Launched in 2001, InnoCentive acts as an unbiased knowledge broker between major global companies and the worldwide scientific community, enabling them to collaborate and solve difficult R&D problems. Global companies including Lilly, Procter & Gamble and Dow Chemical post their tough R&D problems on the confidential InnoCentive Web site, www.innocentive.com, for more than 20,000 leading scientists and researchers in 125 countries to solve. Scientists who deliver solutions that best meet InnoCentive's Challenge requirements receive a financial award for their work, ranging between USD $5,000-$100,000.
"As InnoCentive expands around the globe, Russia continues to be one of our top four markets, alongside China, India and the U.S.," said Ali Hussein, vice president of marketing for InnoCentive. "Our ongoing affiliations with the prestigious St. Petersburg University and The Mendeleev Chemical Society, and now with Moscow State University, further validate InnoCentive's core mission - to unite corporations with uniquely prepared scientific-minds worldwide."
Conference Logistics
"InnoCentive Global Project: A Unique Opportunity for the Russian Scientific Community," will be held on Thursday, March 20, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Academicians, scientists and media are invited to attend the event at Moscow State University's Big Chemistry Hall, located on the second floor of the Department of Chemistry, Sparrow Hills, 119992, Moscow, Russian Federation.
About InnoCentive
InnoCentive is the first online forum that allows world-class scientists and science-based companies to collaborate in a global scientific community to achieve innovative solutions to complex challenges. InnoCentive is an e-business venture of Eli Lilly and Company, a leading innovation-driven pharmaceutical company

Researchers at Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry in Moscow who developed the fluorescent protein DsRed are tinkering with a new chromoprotein with some unique properties.1 Discovered in the sea anemone, Anemonia sulcata (at left), this GFP-like protein, called asCP, is initially nonfluorescent. When primed or "kindled" by intense green-light radiation, as CP glows red under normal excitation light. The fluorescence decays naturally with a half-life of less than 10 seconds, or users can quench the fluorescence instantly and reversibly with blue light.
Since a 10-second half-life isn't particularly practical, the team began making mutations. One interesting variant, KFP1 (kindled fluorescent protein-1), exhibits a more stable, but still reversible, kindling effect with a brief blast of high-intensity green light. More intense irradiation kindles the protein irreversibly and indefinitely. KFP1 codiscoverer, Konstantin Lukyanov, says via E-mail that kindling can be restricted to one cell, or even one organelle. "You can label one mitochondria in the cell and only this mitochondria will stay fluorescent."
Michael Hogwitz, a research scientist at BD Biosciences Clontech, says researchers theoretically can do pulse-chase or time-course experiments with KFP1. The protein is currently available from Evrogen (www.evrogen.com), a Russian biotech firm.

Совместный российско-американский проект Prometheus создан для разработки нового вида силовой установки, в которой в качестве топлива будет использоваться плутоний - 238. Новая установка позволит проводить исследования спутников Юпитера и обеспечит полеты человека на Марс

MOSCOW, Russia -- The United States and Russian space flight nuclear engineers will witness greater cooperation throughout the balance of the decade to ensure the plutonium-238 for five years as the necessary fuel for the nuclear rocket program named "Project Prometheus".
The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry has announced a $32-million dollar deal with the U.S. Department of Energy that sends nuclear fuel to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through 2009, according to Russian scientist Nikolai Ponomaryov-Stepnoi.
Nuclear plutonium-238 is needed by NASA after President George W. Bush announced a radically new program to push faster and further unmanned probes into the solar system and setting-up the initial needed technologies to put humans on Mars in the next decade or so.
Project Prometheus would develop a new kind of nuclear fission power and propulsion system that would be boost a spacecraft to Jupiter where it would explore at least three of that gaseous planet's moons within the next decade.
While some view the loss of the Columbia as a major setback to the American space program, the result may actually boost the development of new propulsion systems and rocket designs.
The short-term dependence on Russian cooperation to keep the International Space Station viable is unequivocally clear at this point in time.
The utilization of Russian nuclear engineers and their nuclear fuels to aid the development of a new solar system space propulsion system would signal even a greater determination to explore space together.
Electric propulsion systems powered by nuclear fission reactor is now being developed for a new Jupiter probe and will be the nation's first space vehicle to use the new 'ion drive.'
NASA's Project Prometheus was established this year to develop technology and conduct advanced studies in the areas of radioisotope power system and nuclear power and propulsion for the peaceful exploration of the Solar System. Project Prometheus, organized within the NASA Office of Space Science, has the goal of developing the first reactor powered spacecraft capability and demonstrating that it can be operated safely and reliably in deep space on long duration missions.
The new program start for NASA may signal a brief retrenchment in manned-mission while the new-generation of technology is fully developed and made safe for human deep space missions, according to veteran NASA program experts.
The entire future of the space program may now rest on the success of the Project Prometheus and the $3-billion Congress must give it to succeed.

Российские и украинские ученые посетили The Permian Basin - самые старые нефтяные месторождения США для ознакомления с последними достижениями в области технологий добычи нефти

The Permian Basin is one of the older oil fields in the United States. All those years of drilling and digging have pumped money back into the economy.
The oil industry has been an important part of the Permian Basin economy for almost eighty years.
"We know how to drill the oil the best, the best ways of co2 flooding, we have that technology developed," said Bob Kiker of the Petroleum Technology Academy.
Now the experts are passing along their experience and their accomplishments. A group of Ukranian and Russian scientist are touring the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum as part of their visit to West Texas to learn the latest in petroleum technology.
"This is where the expertise is," Kiker explained. "The people have gone out there and developed the technology and applied it. We hope to spread the word world wide."
The visitors have traveled thousands of miles away from their homes to learn from the experts, and to help make their own oil industries stronger.
"Oil producing and technology is the same as the United States," said Viktor Cherevan, a Ukranian scientist. "And we use all these methods. But some are new for us."
Visitors' learning this new technology, and the history of the local oil industry could bring big bucks to the Permian Basin in the future.
"When they return home, they will remember who they met," said James Mied of the U.S. Department of Commerce. "And that will be the first place they will go for equipment, services ... opportunities here in the Permian Basin." For the rest of the week the group will attend workshops and have site visits. They will return home on Thursday.

Plan to pipe water to a thirsty world pits entrepreneurs against ecologists

Irkutsk, Russia - Five time zones west from Moscow, just above Mongolia, Lake Baikal is so clear that swimmers who brave its cold, tempestuous waters would risk vertigo if they looked down.
The lake fills a crevice that runs 1,600 metres in depth and more than 600 kilometres in length. It is also the world's largest source of fresh water, with more volume than Canada's Great Lakes put together and enough to account for four-fifths of Russia's supply. And as locals like to remind visitors, it is the world's oldest lake, perhaps 25 million years old, which would make it 24 million years older than just about any other.
Baikal, remote and rugged, has long been appreciated for its unique place on the planet and unparalleled ecosystem. With more than 2,500 species of plants and animals in its waters and along its shores - three-quarters of them endemic to the region - it is as diverse a place as one can find in Siberia. But if Lake Baikal was once seen as a living museum for Earth, it is now being thrust into an uncertain future.
As Russia hurtles into a new century of free-market enthusiasm, its new capitalists want to build a pipeline, several thousand kilometres long, from the world's largest reservoir to the parched lands of China. The idea is about more than improving Russia's exports. It has pitted entrepreneurs against environmentalists in a struggle over the country's vast base of natural resources, and how best to develop them.
At Lake Baikal, the two sides have been clashing for decades over using it for industrial development, with the environmentalists mostly losing. For 45 years, a massive cellulose plant has been spilling chemicals into the southern end of the lake that Russians reverently call the Pearl of Siberia.
"It's not that it's in a terrible place," one municipal official said. "It's in a beautiful place. It just happens to make terrible things."
As in many post-Soviet states, the authorities around Baikal do nothing to hide their belief that pumping up the region's sagging economy is more important than mitigating any damage their projects could do to the natural surroundings. Even Vladimir Fialkov, the chief scientist in charge of studying Lake Baikal, envisions a day when Baikal water will be pumped to China, and possibly to the thirsty billions of Africa, the Middle East and the United States.
"Our analysis shows it is the most pure water in the world," said Mr. Fialkov, who heads the Limnological Institute in the lakeside town of Listvyanka.
Within minutes of meeting a journalist, he pulled out a half-litre bottle of "Baikalskaya" fresh water and put it on the table. "Please, try some," he said.
Some officials believe the only reason not to build a pipeline right away is that as the world grows thirstier, demand will drive up prices and make an expensive pipeline project easier to finance.
The majestic lake is deep enough to satisfy humanity's demands for another 50 years.
"If it's profitable to export oil and gas by pipelines, it will eventually be profitable to export Baikal water by pipelines too," said Anatoli Malevsky, chairman of the Irkutsk regional government's natural-resources committee. "When the shortage of water is higher, the price of water will be higher too."
Baikal's value has long been known to Russians, just as it has long been a cause for ecologists. At least 336 rivers and streams flow into the lake, and its basin has for decades been a base for mining, timber and shipbuilding industries. In Soviet times, schoolchildren were taught to refer to the crystalline lake as the Sacred Sea, and practised drawing its jalapeno pepper-shape in class.
Then, in the 1950s, the government decided to build the enormous cellulose plant on the southern shores, in the village of Baikalsk. Local anger gave birth to the first real environmental campaign of the Soviet era - decades before Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power. "Really, perestroika and glasnost were what gave the environmental movement a chance to voice itself more loudly. But that first fight over Baikal was the start," said Jennifer Sutton, head of the Baikal Ecological Wave, an environmental group based in the neighbouring city of Irkutsk. A pattern for the next 45 years of wrangling over Lake Baikal was set: The environmentalists won a public-relations war and generally made life harder for the bureaucrats who wanted to build the cellulose plant. In 1987, the Gorbachev government ordered the Baikalsk mill to be "reprofiled" so that its activities would be harmless within six years. In 1996, the United Nations declared Lake Baikal a World Heritage Site.
Opponents of the mill acknowledge today it is one of the cleanest operating plants in Russia.
But environmentalists say many of their victories have been hollow, which they fear will be the case again in their fight to stop any plans for a water pipeline to China.
New laws, including a tax on polluters to pay for the damage they cause, are frequently dodged. Moreover, a court recently ruled that the polluter-pay tax is unconstitutional, leaving open the question of what regime, if any, the government will introduce to replace it.
The decree to clean up the Baikal mill also led nowhere. The plant continues to spew dioxins, sulphur oxides and chlorinated organic compounds into the lake, polluting an area of more than 30 square kilometres from its southern tip.
"Building the plant there was one of the biggest mistakes the Soviet government ever made," said Roman Pukalov, chief Baikal campaigner for Greenpeace Russia. "The government knows that now, but the plant is still there because of local corruption."
While Baikal remains startlingly pure, the location of several plants along the Selenga River, its largest tributary, has meant that sections of the lake are deteriorating.
Inside the 30-kilometre zone around the cellulose mill, there were once 30 species of crustaceans. Today, only four can be found. Species of plankton crucial to the ecosystem have also disappeared, and scores of Baikal's signature species, the nerpa freshwater seal, have turned up inexplicably dead on the shores.
Ms. Sutton worries most about the plankton because they eat bacteria and thereby play a crucial role in keeping the rest of the lake clean. While they can handle almost any type of natural bacteria, the tiny organisms have proved no match for the tonnes of industrial waste that have been discharged into the lake in recent decades.
"These endemic species are very sensitive to pollution," she said. "You destroy the natural filter, you'll destroy the lake eventually."
In many ways, the continuing battle for Baikal, whether over the quality of its water or its purpose, epitomizes the state of Russia's environmental movement. The greens are waging public-relations battles, and winning some, but have yet to declare victory.
"We raised public awareness 40 years ago [during the struggle against the Baikal cellulose plant]," one veteran Russian environmentalist said. "But that's about it. Now, the situation is worse, not better, than it was then."
Part of the problem is that Russia's system is not yet a truly democratic forum, and remains a place where the most powerful vested interests eventually get their way. Last year, in its biggest show of strength to date, the green movement collected 2.5 million signatures calling for a referendum on two of the biggest ecological questions facing the country: the government's plan to start accepting foreign nuclear waste for storage, and President Vladimir Putin's plan to abolish Russia's two main environmental-protection agencies.
The country's Central Election Committee, however, rejected the request, disqualifying nearly 700,000 of the signatures for "technical reasons" such as incorrectly filled-out passport details. That left the movement below the two million signatures the Russian constitution requires to trigger a referendum. The greens have not made another attempt.
While that failure could easily be laid at the feet of an obstructionist political system, some veteran observers say it's also a sign that the environmental movement in Russia has yet to catch up to its counterparts in Western Europe and North America.
"Without a civil society, there's no pressure on politicians, and therefore there's no political will to get things done," said Alexei Yablokov, a former top adviser to former president Boris Yeltsin. "We have no civil society."
Though the groups spearheading the Baikal campaign - Baikal Ecological Wave and Greenpeace - are among the most developed non-governmental organizations in the country, they have not been able to penetrate the political process far enough to influence decisions.
At the Irkutsk natural-resources committee, Mr. Malevsky has lost his optimism about the lake's future, even as he promotes it as a source for water exports. He said that in the two years since Mr. Putin came to office, the closing of environmental-protection agencies and the transfer of their tasks to the Natural Resources Department have meant fewer people doing environmental monitoring and policing. "Nowadays, enterprises can cause air pollution and water pollution and not pay at all," Mr. Malevsky said.
Budgets have also shrunk unexpectedly, leaving programs such as water purification around the Baikal cellulose plant in the lurch.
"Unfortunately, over the last few years, we have seen a worsening of the ecological situation across the country," he said. "A lot of ecological programs are going to have financial problems because of this terrible federal law."
In Canada and other Western countries, environmental groups and their political allies would mount a public-relations offensive, leaking reports to the media and lobbying sympathetic politicians to press the government to reverse course.But in a remote corner of Russia, drumming up support for the world's oldest lake has been as difficult under a democracy as it was under the Soviet regime - in part because the people fighting for Baikal feel they are not yet living in a true democracy.
"A developed democracy has a developed civil society," Mr. Yablokov, the former Yeltsin adviser, said in an interview.
"In Russia, we're just not there yet. We're allowed to take part in the debate, but we're not allowed to win."

After the Soviet Union was dissolved, its nations had nearly 1300 metric tons of weapons-usable nuclear material under varying degrees of safeguards and security. The U.S. feared that impoverished, unemployed weapons researchers might divert the material to terrorists or rogue nations. In response, the Department of Energy established nuclear nonproliferation programs that sponsor ORNL teams that have helped more than 80 Russian facilities secure weapons-usable nuclear materials, upgrade safeguards and security, and improve material accounting systems;
helped the Russian Ministry of Defense improve weapons-systems security and worked with the U.S. Department of Defense to monitor the dismantlement of Russian weapons delivery systems;
assisted Russian customs officials in detecting any nuclear materials being smuggled out of the country and provided them with radiation monitoring equipment and training;
developed technology to verify that highly enriched uranium (HEU) from dismantled weapons has been blended down in Russian Federation facilities to produce low enriched uranium for use in commercial power plants;
helped ensure in 1994 that 600 kilograms of HEU were loaded safely and shipped securely from Kazakhstan to the Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex. Later, several hundred kilograms were transferred, with ORNL's help, from the Republic of Georgia to a United Kingdom processing facility. In 2002, an ORNL team worked with experts from DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, the U.S. Department of State, and the International Atomic Energy Agency to safely remove 50 kg of HEU from a Yugoslavian reactor. The material was transported to Russia for conversion to reactor-grade fuel.
To reduce surplus weapons-grade plutonium from U.S. and Russian reactors, ORNL manages a multi-site effort to fabricate, irradiate, and test plutonium-based mixed-oxide (MOX) fuels for light-water reactors. ORNL manages and conducts research with Russia to develop the technology needed to fabricate MOX fuels for Russian reactors.
ORNL is creating meaningful jobs for former Soviet Union weapons researchers through the commercialization of indigenous technology and reindustrialization efforts.

Partners with Mid-Atlantic-Russia Business Council and the U.S. Department of State to Host First Russian Technology Program at U.S. Trade Show

NEW YORK, March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- CeBIT America, the first international CeBIT trade show to convene in the United States, (June 18-20, 2003; Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City), today announced a seminar and exhibition program in conjunction with the Mid-Atlantic-Russia Business Council and the U.S. Department of State, that will provide opportunities for business and technology cooperation between U.S. and Russian companies. This also marks the first time that a Russian business or technology association will hold such a multifaceted program at a major U.S. trade show.
"The positive response to our programs in the Mid-Atlantic region has encouraged us to expand our seminars to locations on the East Coast, with the most comprehensive program of the series being held at CeBIT America," said Val Kogan, President, Mid-Atlantic-Russia Business Council. "The emerging Russian technology market offers U.S. enterprises interesting value propositions for fostering business relations and cultivating cooperation with local technology companies."
The "Russian Science & Technology Opportunities for U.S. Businesses" seminar will be led by representatives from the U.S. Department of State's Partners Program, which assists U.S. businesses in funding research projects and engaging in technology development in the former Soviet Union. High-level speakers will include representatives from the International Science and Technology Center Programs, U.S. Department of State; BISNIS, International Trade Administration, U.S.
Department of Commerce; U.S. Industry Coalition; and U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation. The seminars will also feature presentations by U.S. corporations with significant transfer technology collaboration experience in Russia. "CeBIT America is delighted to add these unique educational seminars as well a special pavilion for technology companies from Russia to our inaugural trade show," said Mark Dineen, Managing Director, CeBIT America. "CeBIT America is hosting special technology pavilions for over 20 countries, but this program is the first for a Russian business or technology association at a major trade show in the United States."
In addition to the seminar series, the MARBC Russian Technology Pavilion will feature an extensive display of Russian science and technology capabilities. A delegation from the Russian Federation, representing companies in the information technology and related technology industries, will be on hand to engage in a panel discussion and to exhibit the latest advancements in Russian technology.
The "Russian Science & Technology Opportunities for U.S. Businesses" seminar series will take place from June 18-19, 2003 at CeBIT America.
CeBIT America will bring together over 400 exhibitors and 35,000 senior decision-makers from technology and vertical industries, including the automotive, banking, education, government, healthcare, hospitality, insurance & finance, manufacturing, media & publishing, and retail sectors. Partnering with leading business and government organizations, CeBIT America will offer exclusive business and educational opportunities for exhibitors and attendees, including a comprehensive conference program co-developed by CNET Networks and the Business Council for the United Nations' 2003 'Bridging the Global Digital Divide Conference.' For more information on CeBIT America, please visit www.cebit-america.com.
About Mid-Atlantic - Russia Business Council
Since 1994 the Mid-Atlantic - Russia Business Council (MARBC) has worked to foster business relations between Russia and the Newly Independent States (NIS), and the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Region, while cultivating mutual appreciation of political, economic, cultural and educational interests. The goal of the MARBC is to enable companies based in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Region to enhance their positions in Russia and the NIS, and to attract Russian businesses to the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Region.
The MARBC is a major non-profit organization in the Mid-Atlantic Region that provides information about and services related to Russia and the NIS. The MARBC places emphasis on industries in which the Russian market is most lucrative and prosperous, including Advanced Technology, Energy and Environment, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology, Materials/Nanotechnology, Manufacturing Technology, Information Technology, Transportation, Instrumentation, Communications, Air, Space and Surface Transportation, Agriculture, and more. The MARBC organizes more than 25 events annually, including many targeted to companies in these particular industries.
Since mid-1997, the MARBC has been actively involved in developing cooperation with Russian regions. Since that time, the MARBC signed agreements with nearly twenty regional Russian Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations including Moscow and the Moscow Region which is the epicenter of most Russian technology-related enterprises, and others.

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