On May 30, 2017, the Russian Academy of Sciences has hosted the award ceremony for the winners of the 2016 Contest for the medals of the Russian Academy of Sciences for young scientists and students of Russian universities for the best scientific work in 19 areas.

In the field of nuclear physics, the RAS medal with a prize for young scientists was presented to the teachers of the NEVOD Scientific and Educational Center of the MEPhI Institute of Nuclear Physics and Engineering Nikolai Ampilogov and Ivan Astapov for works "Scintillation muon hodoscope for near-earth space diagnostics".

The development of a new scintillation muon hodoscope began in 2008 in accordance with the agreement between MEPhI and the Institute of Applied Geophysics named after Academician E.K. Fedorov. Ampilogov N.V. and Astapov I.I. participated in this work from the very beginning, being the main executors of this project. With their direct participation, the following designs have been developed: the original design of the new detector; registration electronics and software; numerous universal stands for testing all components of a muon hodoscope; method for calibrating muon hodoscopes; assembled two 4-plane supermodules, including 32 basic modules (more than 2000 recording channels). The created scintillation muon hodoscope makes it possible to obtain data on the anisotropy of the flux of cosmic-ray muons in real time and to conduct operational monitoring of hazardous phenomena in the atmosphere of the Earth and near-Earth space.

It should be noted that the final qualifying works of both laureates were also awarded medals of the RAS with a premium for university students in the direction of nuclear physics for 2008 and 2009.

We congratulate scientists with the deserved award and we wish them new achievements in science.