National Academy of Science of Armenia Opportunities for Technological Innovations Prof. Radik Martirossian President of the NAS RA

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National Academy of Science of Armenia
Opportunities for Technological
InnovationsProf. Radik MartirossianPresident
of the NAS RA
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NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF RA HISTORY AND
OVERVIEW

• National Academy of Sciences of Armenia was
  established at the hardest time of the Second
  World War in 1943, as the supreme scientific
  institution of the Republic, integrating the
  efforts of the scientists in fundamental
  research, evolving and reviewing the rich
  spiritual legacy of the Armenian Nation, to
  provide scientific and practical resolution to
  the outstanding fundamental objectives facing
  the Nation and the Country in the economic,
  social and cultural domains as well as in
  national security and applied research.

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STRUCTURE

• More than 40 Institutes and scientific units
• 3700 persons grouped into 5 sections
• Mathematics, mechanics and IT
• Physics and astrophysics
• Natural sciences
• Chemistry and earth sciences
• Armenology and social sciences

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ACADEMIC STAFF

• 75 full members
• 54 corresponding members
• 35 overseas members
• 330 doctors of sciences
• 1019 candidates of sciences.

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GOALS

• Organizing basic research
• Implementing operations in fundamental and
  applied sciences
• Establishment of scientific schools
• Contribution to the assets of the world science.

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THE ROLE OF THE ACADEMY IN THE CURRENT CONTEXT

• PROBLEMS FACED FOR THE LAST 15 YEARS

• economic blockade
• brain drain
• collapse of scientific links
• severe streamlining of the research staff
• critical under-funding
• Main focus - retaining the minimal
  infrastructure for scientific research
  capabilities.
• .

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RECENT ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVMENTS

• International cooperation with many scientific
  centers worldwide
• Outlining the legislative domain for research
• Establishment of academic computer network
• Enabling preservation of scientific resources

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RECENT ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVMENTS (2)

• Generation of research projects aimed at
  developing economy under market conditions
• Publications
• International grants
• Contracted operations

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Publications, Grants Contracts2003 - 2006
Years International Publications Number of Grants Grants Total sum in USD Contracted Operations Total sum in USD
2003 15 books 766 articles 18 2 311 251 1 000 000
2004 12 books 798 articles 17 1 889 350 1 200 000
2005 15 books 823 articles 16 2 627 849 377 595
2006 15 books 755 articles 15 1 460 041 500 000
TOTAL 57 books 3142 articles 66 8 288 491 3 077 595
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INTERNATIONAL GRANTS DYNAMICS 2003-2006 BY
INSTITUTIONS
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SCIENCE FUNDING IN SOME TRANSITION COUNTRIES
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BUSINESS SECTOR FUNDING
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NUMBER OF ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN THE WORLD 8 MOST
POPULAR JOURNALS IN THE FIELD OF PHYSICS IN
2000-2006
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Science and Technology as a Driver in the
Economic Development Strategy of Armenia

• Key actions for transformation of Science Policy
  of Armenia

• To step up investments into science,
  technologies, engineering, and innovations as
  prime mover of countrys economic development
• Closer integration of science and education
• Promoting commercialization of research results
• Boosting the efficiency of scientific and
  research establishments
• Increasing involvement of younger specialists in
  research efforts
• Updating the list of priority directions in
  science and technology

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Science and Technology as a Driver in the
Economic Development Strategy of Armenia (2)

• National Academy of Sciences of Armenia realizes
  some approaches in the framework of new science
  policy

• Establishment of new scientific and international
  research and development centers via unification
  of institutions
• Preparation of the program for upgrading
  existing infrastructure and developing new
  facilities to support research
• Increasing the participation of NAS RA in
  international ST cooperation
• Preparation of a proposal on the opportunities
  for innovation based on the investigations and
  research outcomes of Academy researchers

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OUTLINE OF PRIORITY TRENDS FOR DEVELOPMENT

• Armenology
• Information and Advanced Technologies
• Terrestrial and space research
• New energy sources
• Sustainable development with biological and
  ecological perspectives
• Major fundamental research to support the
  development of applied research

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PROPOSALS OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES
IN THE FOLLOWING DOMAINS

• New materials
• Leading-edge technologies
• Information Technology
• Life sciences
• Humanities

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• NEW MATERIALS

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INSTITUTE OF RADIOPHYSICS AND ELECTRONICS

• New Materials For Thermal / Electric Cooling

• The new materials on basis of layered oxides for
  thermoelectric devices are proposed, providing
  higher efficiency than the existing ones. A
  composition is disclosed (US Patent 6459031)
  having the formula (RBa2Cu3O7-d)x
  (PrBa2Cu3O7-d)1-x wherein R comprises Y, Ce,
  Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb,
  and/or Lu 0ltx1 and d is such that the
  RBa2Cu3O7-d component of the composition is in a
  metallic or transitional phase. The technology
  and thermoelectric properties of these materials
  are presented.

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DIELECTRIC WAVEGUIDE STRUCTURES WITH
SURFACE -CONTROL IMPEDANCE

• In the Ka frequency band the institute has
  manufactured and tested dielectric guide
  structures coated by thin metal and
  light-sensitive film. Such impedance films
  provide a number of passive and active elements
  in millimeter waveband. AIIBIV class
  semiconductor, namely CdS, was used as the
  light-sensitive coating. When exposed to light,
  these compounds reduce their resistance, becoming
  almost metals, as a result of which surface
  impedance originates. Its value may be thus
  controlled by illuminating smaller or larger part
  of the total CdS area. The institute has also
  analyzed the response time of surface impedance.

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INSTITUTE OF GEOLOGICAL SCEINCES INSTITUTE OF
EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING

• The new methods of improving the durability of
  underground, hydrotechnical constructions
  exploited in aggresssive conditions

• This new method of extending the operational
  life of hydromechanical structures to be used in
  aggressive media. To secure the sulphate
  stability of concrete, a study was made of
  concretes on the basis of volcanic rock
  aggregates. The results obtained show that the
  operational life of concrete can be predicted by
  taking account the hydraulic activity of the
  aggregates.

The gypsum crystals in the samples on guards sand
after 12 months in solutions (electron
microscopy)
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INSTITUTE OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

• New Anticorrosive Enamel with Complex Unique
  Properties

• The anticorrosive enamel with the following
  qualities has been elaborated
• The coatings on the basis of the Enamel protect
  the metal in the acid, alkaline and salt
  solutions, in oil-products and others
• The Enamel usage is possible at negative air
  temperatures (about 20 degrees below zero)
• It is permissible to coat by the Enamel damp
  metallic surfaces, old paint, as well as rusted
  metal (up to 100 mkm of rust thickness), wood,
  concrete surfaces etc.
• Hardening (polymerization) of the coating may
  take place at air negative temperature, at high
  humidity and also under water.
• The enamel and coatings on its basis have
  been successfully tested on the specialized
  organizations of Armenia, Russia, Italy, Bulgaria
  and others.
• The enamel has been patented.

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State-of-the-art Technologies
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MICROBIOLOGY AND MICROORGANISM DEPOSITORY CENTER
OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Organization in Armenia the production of
  saccharides, sweeteners, bioethanol and feed from
  inulin containing plants

• The center proposes the establishment of fodder
  production in Armenia from inulin-containing
  plants, mostly Helianthus tuberoses and
  chicory, saccharides, sweeteners,
  bioethanol. It is envisaged to implement a
  complex non-waste technology involving inulins
  microbial enzyme hydrolysis for producing
  fructose and fructose-glucose syrup, with the
  processing waste of raw ethanol for methane
  fermentation.

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Periodically polled lithium niobate crystals
A new technique for creation of periodically
polled domain structure in lithium niobate (PPLN)
crystals directly during the growth process was
developed by the group of Dr.E.Kokanyan at the
IPR NASA. The mentioned method was successfully
used for the growth of pure as well as doped with
various transitional metal and rare-earth
impurity ions PPLN crystals. The controlled
formation of 4-50?m wide domains along the a-axis
of the crystals in lengths of 20mm without
interruptions or modulations in domain size and
with more than 3mm of the domain inversion depth
was possible.
Scanning election microscope (SEM) micrograph of
an etched surface of as-grown hafnium doped
lithium niobate crystal.

• E.Kokanyan, V.Babajanyan, G.Demirkhanyan,
  J.Gruber, S.Erdei. J. of Appl. Phys., 92, 1544
  (2002).
• E.P.Kokanyan, L.Razzari, I.Cristiani, V.Degiorgio
  and J.B.Gruber. Appl. Phys. Lett., 84, 1880
  (2004)

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Improvement of PPLN creation methods(2)

• The expected results are
• - Reduction of a room temperature poling voltage
  for congruent LiNbO3 from 21 kV/mm to 5-6 kV/mm
• - Reduction of leakage current during the poling
  of Mg-doped LiNbO3 by 2-3 orders
• - Elimination of conventional photolithographic
  electrode deposition for PPLN creation
• Removal of lattice period limitation caused by
  conventional photolithography.

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INSTITUTE OF RADIOPHYSICS AND ELECTRONICS

• Microwave Resonance Therapy Devices

• The proposed laser system includes
• a range finder and a dual-axis rotary
  platform with shaft angle encoders. The
  sensors and platforms had been developed and
  manufactured by IRPhE and SDC for the MIR
  orbital station, and showed high reliability
  throughout the 1996 2001 operation.
• The Institute has developed a number of
  therapeutic devices to be used mostly on the
  biologically active zones of the human body, or
  on the acupuncturing points affected by the
  weak microwave radiation. In contrast to popular
  imitations the proposed microwave resonance
  therapy device has a broad frequency specter
  yielding a powerful healing effect on the
  resonance frequency of the human body. The device
  is registered in several European countries and
  is in high demand.

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND
AUTOMATION PROBLEMS

• Deployment of Scientific-Educational Grid
  Infrastructure in Armenia

• Grid infrastructures are one of the key enablers
  for scientific research and for development of
  Information Society. Enabling large-scale
  innovative research to be conducted through
  collaboration of distributed teams of scientist
  across the Armenian Research-Educational
  organizations and Western partners. It is fact
  that computational Grids consists of various
  computational layers. The computational resources
  can be integrated within the organization-institut
  ion, country, region, and worldwide. In this
  paper it is given the overview of Grid activities
  in Armenia in context of science and education

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In the first stage, in 2004 the first high
Performance computing cluster in the South
Caucasus region had been developed (funded by
Project ISTC A-823), which consisted of 128 Xeon
3.06GHz (64 nodes) processors. The nodes of the
cluster are interconnected by Myrinet High
bandwidth and Gigabit networks. The Myinet
network is used for computation and Gigabit for
task distribution and management. The cluster
achieved 523.4GFlops performance by HPL (High
Performance Linpack) test.
fig. 1 Armcluster
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It is planned to expand the current
infrastructure, in order to serve the existing
and new user communities, by utilizing the model
of the 2 layered infrastructures where the mature
sites will be moved to real infrastructure while
the fresh sites from new institutes and user
communities will be incubated within the
experimental Grid infrastructure.
fig. 2 The Structure of Scientific-Educational
Grid Infrastructure
Further work Further it is planned to integrate
Armenian computational resources into
international Grids, such as LHC (Large Hadron
Collider), SEE-Grid (South East European Grid),
Grid5000 (French National Experimental Grid)
grids, as well as create joint resource operating
centre.
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LIFE SCIENCES
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INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

• Zetapol, a highly efficient antiviral and
  antibacterial remedy

• Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is widely spread
  throughout the world. Though some countries are
  FMD-free the high rate of disease progression
  cause a serious problem for the international
  community. The Institute has developed a highly
  efficient remedy possessing powerful antiviral
  and antibacterial effects, named Zetapol.
  Zetapol is a native physiologically active
  compound based on calcium salt of ds-RNA. Study
  showed that Zetapol is effective in treatment of
  many infectious diseases of agricultural animals,
  including FMD. Zetapol is non-toxic and has no
  side effects. The product is protected by IPR
  1367197, 15.09.1987.

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ARCHAEOLOGY
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Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography

• The protection of the monuments, their
  internationalization and development of tourism,
  which will contribute to investigation of
  historical and cultural heritage of Armenia are
  most important and urgent tasks for the
  Institute. Owing to international collaboration,
  Armenian archaeology got a unique possibility to
  use the modern laboratories in Europe and
  America, especially in the sphere of definition
  of chronological questions and investigations of
  special materials.

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Aratashen. A settlement of Neolithic-Eneolithic
stage. The Radiocarbon analyses have shown, that
the lowest level of the site is presented by the
earliest settlement of Transcaucasus, which dates
to the first half of the 6th millenium BC.
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Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (2)

• In particular, within last years, more than 200
  Radiocarbon analyses have been made, due to which
  the chronological scale of archaeological
  cultures of the region from the 7/6th until the
  end of the 1st millennium BC have been
  successfully reconstructed
• In the sphere of archaeometry special
  investigations of metal and obsidian artifacts
  have been made from the 6th to the 2nd millennia
  BC. Within 1989-2006, more than 1500 analyses of
  obsidian samples have been done using the methods
  of Neutron activation, Inductively Coupled
  Plasma, Mass Spectrometry, X-Ray fluorescence,
  Fission-track dating.
• Creation of corresponding laboratories within the
  structures of the Institute of Archaeology and
  Ethnography will turn Armenia into a leading and
  important centre of archaeological investigations
  in the region.

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ACADEMIC INNOVATION CENTER

• The Academy plans establishing Academic Business
  Information Center to
• Develop scientific and technological
  communication between Armenia and foreign
  countries
• Promote scientific mobility of scientists
• Stimulate the informational and investment
  activities

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ACADEMIC INNOVATION CENTER (2)

• WIDER OBJECTIVES
• Providing conditions for raising the quality and
  competitive power of the Armenian scientific and
  technical products and services
• Organizing the analytical databases for
  information exchange on business incubators and
  technology transfers
• Developing special infrastructures for transfer
  of knowledge within NAS RA.
• Developing strategic investment projects and
  programs with joint application of national and
  private funding.

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CONCLUSION

• Obviously, certain priorities require urgent
  solutions, for instance
• improving access of Academic Institutes to
  capital market, including venture capital market
• stimulating increased expenditures for
  scientific-technical and experimental operations
  from private companies.
• Hope this representative event will encourage
  the steps in this direction

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!