TWINNING PROGRAM WITH GEORGIA, ROMANIA, AND UKRAINE

(left photo) Vyacheslav Konstantinov visits Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, October 1999. (right photo) Robert Pohl visits the Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics in Kharkov, Ukraine, July 1999.

Robert Pohl made his first trip to Ukraine at the end of July 1999. The purpose of his visit was to assess the experimental possibilities at the Verkin Institute and to outline the research to be undertaken there. Pohl then hosted his colleague Vyacheslav Konstantinov for a month at Cornell University in October 1999. During his visit, Konstantinov made extensive use of the library and computing facilities in order to collect information for the research on minimal thermal conductivity in cryocrystals that is to be carried out in the coming year of the project. Pohl plans to visit Ukraine this summer, when the researchers will review data and begin a first draft of a joint publication. When Konstantinov returns to the US this fall, the report will be prepared for publication. Pohl and Konstantinov have submitted a proposal to the US Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) entitled "Thermal Properties of Octupole Glass" for research to be conducted after the period of the present grant.

Update--2000

In the second year of their Twinning project, Pohl and Konstantinov met for a week at the International Conference on Cryocrystals, which was held in Szklarska Poreba, Poland, July 28-August 4, 2000. In addition to having extensive discussions about their recent research and planning the outline for a future paper, the two colleagues presented a joint report entitled "Search for the Minimum Thermal Conductivity in Mixed Cryocrystals (CH4)1x Krx." For the final visit under the project, Konstantinov spent one month at Cornell in October-November 2000. He and Pohl further analyzed their experimental results and co-authored a paper that has been submitted to the journal Low Temperature Physics. Unfortunately, the proposal they submitted to CRDF in 1999 was not funded; however, Konstantinov and Pohl are continuing their collaboration mainly by e-mail and are planning to revise and resubmit their proposal to CRDF and possibly other funders.

Robert Pohl (left) and Vyacheslav Konstantinov (right, seated)