They presented their developments to the judgment of experts from major Russian and foreign companies, such as GEOTECH Seismic, SIBUR, PhosAgro, and Schneider Electric.
On Monday, December 14, Mining University hosted the opening ceremony of the final scientific session “Young Science Leaders – 2020.” The event was organized by the International Competence Center for Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO and featured 15 winners of various competitions held by this organization this year. About 400 people watched them, thanks to the Zoom program.
Vladimir Borzenkov, Director General of the UNESCO Center, said that the event is not competitive. It’s a platform, which gives young people - students, postgraduate students, and specialists of fuel and energy and petrochemical companies - an opportunity to tell about their research to recognized professionals and get their expert opinion. In other words, it is a tool allowing to provide continuity of generations in the industry and to increase efficiency of science and real production integration.
The rector of St. Petersburg Mining University Vladimir Litvinenko emphasized that the problem of qualified staff deficit is typical not only for Russia, but also for the majority of the world countries, including post-industrial ones. That is why the number of universities and companies in Europe, Asia and Africa that are interested in cooperation with the UNESCO Center to develop academic mobility, unify educational programs and implement a unified international certification system for engineers is progressively growing.
"Leaders of large companies, including those present at our forum today, understand perfectly well that their success is based on human capital: managers, engineers, those who ensure the functioning of technological chains. Competent employees are piece goods, and in Russia they can earn more than abroad. You are the best of those who took part in our scientific contests, those who are capable of becoming part of the domestic scientific and technical elite," Vladimir Litvinenko addressed the audience.
He explained that the International Center for Competence in Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO, whose Board of Governors he chairs, makes every effort to ensure that talented young people are able to put their potential into action. In particular, it sends them on internships to universities in the EU and China, gives them the opportunity to participate in double degree programs (i.e., to receive not only Russian but also European higher education degrees), to defend the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Phd) in the West. This increases the competitiveness of graduates in the labor market and allows them to choose the most promising paradigm of their development. Now this work is temporarily suspended due to the difficult sanitary and epidemiological situation, but will be resumed after the opening of the borders.
Sirodzh Loikov, First Deputy CEO and member of the Management Board at PhosAgro, emphasized that “all leading companies are naturally interested in adding the best of the best to their talent pool. And given that about 70% of the Group’s engineers and top managers came from Mining University, the search for new employees is carried out here in the first place.”
"Every year, more than sixty of the best graduates get the opportunity to become part of PhosAgro's team. We guide many of them from their school years, and we look at others during various forums and competitions. For us, participation in such events is a great chance to meet promising specialists, and for you it is a chance to make a new qualitative step in science and find new partners and colleagues," said Siroj Loikov.
Rustam Galiakhmetov, Managing Director of SIBUR Holding, emphasized to the young people that they "have been noticed thanks to their successful hard work. Now they need to develop further and go up without fear of difficulties and mistakes. After all, technology is not standing still, and only those who are constantly improving their level of competence can be truly successful.
President of GEOTECH Seismic Vladimir Tolkachev reminded that the full extent of responsibility for what our country will be in the second half of the 21st century lies precisely on today's participants of the final scientific session.
"The world is super-competitive, and it’s bound to test you. But this should not scare you off. Russia needs new Lomonosovs, and it is you who can take on this role. You have the ability to achieve any goals and heights. Only a lack of ambition can be an obstacle in your way. Think and act ambitiously. Your motto should be professional scientific expansion, desire and will to change and improve the world," Vladimir Tolkachev admonished the young scientists.
The sphere of their scientific interests is incredibly diverse. The speech of Ludmila Salet Kanimbue from Angola was devoted to petrological features of the picrobasaltic lavas on Lanzarote, which is a part of the Canary Islands group. Yaroslav Klimavicius from Samara Technical University presented his development of a mobile technology for recycling oily waste. And Kristina Matrokhina from St. Petersburg Mining University presented her project on traffic management in global networks.
Forpost-sz.ru will tell you about the most interesting studies presented at the final session. We wrote earlier about one of them, namely, “Problems of mastering industrial production of modern domestic hydrotreating catalysts,” by Rostislav Konoplin, a postgraduate student of St. Petersburg Mining University.
