Over the weekend, May 20 and 21, MEPhI hosted a Grand Alumni Meeting. Such meetings are held every five years and coincide with the anniversaries of the university. On Saturday, alumni who graduated from the university after 1990 came to see friends and congratulate the alma mater on its 80th anniversary, on Sunday - those who received diplomas more than 33 years ago. In total, more than four thousand people came to the Grand Alumni Meeting.
The meeting was opened by Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, graduate and rector of MEPhI Vladimir Shevchenko.
“What brings us here? First of all, memory. The memory of the time we spent here as students, of those successes and failures, loves and disappointments, victories and mistakes, without which a person cannot become an adult. Pride brought us here. We are proud that each of us has a diploma from one of the best technical universities in the world - MEPhI. And everyone knows that he deserved it. Faith brought us. The belief that the children who come here to study will eventually take our places - the places of the Atlanteans who hold the sky over Russia on their shoulders. And we were brought by love. Love for life, for alma mater, for my friends. This love warms us today just as it warmed us while studying at the university,” Vladimir Shevchenko greeted the audience.
The rector recalled that the university is constantly developing and recently adopted a new ambitious five-year cooperation program with the State Corporation Rosatom, which will allow MEPhI to enter the top 5 universities in the world providing nuclear and related education.
The head of the Kurchatov Synchrotron-Neutron Research Complex of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", a graduate of MEPhI, Nikita Marchenkov, also delivered a welcoming speech.
“For me, MEPhI is a sign of quality. When students or graduate students from MEPhI come to work to me, I know for sure that they will solve the tasks that will be set for them,” Nikita Marchenkov said.
Director of the business group of e-commerce and logistics services of the Yandex company, a person who was included in the rating of the most promising Russians under 30 according to Forbes, a graduate of MEPhI Daniil Shuleiko shared his impressions of the meeting with the alma mater and wished the alumni to see each other more often:
“I walked through the classrooms, looked into the sambo hall and almost died of nostalgia. I really want many, many more people to experience positive emotions, so that our children and grandchildren come to study at this university and spend great student years here. Meet classmates, chat with friends.”
Graduates communicated with pleasure, rejoiced at unexpected meetings, drank tea together, sang songs, played basketball and volleyball, went on excursions specially organized for them, took pictures.
On Sunday, the square in front of the main building of the university was filled with graduates under 1990, thanks to whose work Russia is protected by a reliable nuclear shield, nuclear power plants are multiplying, and nuclear and laser technologies are developing. And, opening the event, Vladimir Shevchenko began with words of gratitude.
“Thanks to your work, strength, achievements and success, MEPhI has become one of the best nuclear universities in the world. Good health to the living and eternal memory to the departed alumni! I want to assure you that we will do our best so that those students who come to study at our university today come out of it as worthy successors of glorious traditions. I will be glad if you leave today's meeting not only with pleasant memories, but also with new ideas, thoughts about interesting projects that can be implemented together with MEPhI. Know that the university is always waiting for you!” the rector said.
