General Assembly of the Division of Physical, Mathematical and Technical Sciences of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) discussed the important achievements of 2021
02.01.2022 /At the regular online meeting of the General Assembly of the Division of Physical, Mathematical and Technical Sciences (DPMTS) of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) devoted to the annual reports, the reports of the Institute of Biophysics, the Institute of Control Systems (ICS) and the National Aviation Academy (NAA) on the results of the research works carried out in 2021 were discussed.
The event was attended by Full and Corresponding Members of the ANAS, general and executive directors of scientific institutions, academic secretaries, heads of education, public relations and international relations departments, as well as authors of important scientific results.
Speaking on results of the research carried out at the Institute of Biophysics, Director General of the Institute, Corresponding Member of ANAS Oktay Gasimov said that the research at the Institute had been conducted mainly in one field, and 11 important results have been achieved this year. Also 6 articles of the institute's employees had been published in collections with a high impact factor. In the reporting year there were a total of 204 references to articles by scientists of the Institute, which is 32 more than in 2020.
The speaker also touched upon the status of execution of the tasks arising from the decrees and orders of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as the decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Presidium of ANAS and the General Assembly of the DPMTS.
Then he spoke about the translation in the reporting year of the bestseller Molecular Cell Biology published in many languages of the world into Azerbaijani language. He emphasized that this book had been written by famous scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Cornell University and University of California. The 8th edition of the bestseller, published in 2016 by Springer and translated into our language, contains important advances based on the experimental research of recent years in the field of biomedicine, the molecular cell.
Oktay Gasimov spoke about the national and international grants received by the employees of the institute, as well as the popular scientific activities they carry out in the mass media. He emphasized that in the reporting year, the scientists of the youngest scientific institution of the DPMTS made significant progress in the area of international cooperation. They conducted research at the international level with colleagues from Turkey, the United States, Italy, Pakistan, Switzerland, the Republic of Belarus and France.
According to the speaker, as a result of joint research with Italian scientists, the specialists of the institute proposed a therapeutic method for treating such diseases as cataract, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In addition, as a result of joint research with scientists from the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), the National Cancer Center and Baku State
University, the mechanisms of action of cationic peptide EQRPR, derived from hydrolysis of rice bran protein, in the fight against cancer and COVID-19 infection had been studied.
Speaking further about the achievements achieved jointly with the specialists of the National Center of Oncology, Oktay Gasimov said that, considering the TEMPO spin probe as a drug model, the degree of their incorporation into the membranes of healthy and cancerous lung cells had been evaluated. Also, the primary (reference) variant of protein S (spike), which plays an important role as an antigen in the penetration of SARS-CoV-2 virus into human cells and its recognition by the immune system, was compared with the protein S of virus 263067 found in different countries.
The online session also provided information on the integration of science and education at the Institute of Biophysics, the current state of e-science and ongoing personnel training, achievements in the publishing and social sphere, including the electronic encyclopedia "Wikipedia". Interviews and speeches of employees on various TV channels, radio and other media were mentioned.
Speaking at the meeting, General Director of the Institute of Control Systems, Academician Ali Abbasov said that the year 2021 was memorable for important achievements of his institution. For example, Professor Elmkhan Makhmudov was included in the rating of the most influential scientists in the world (the first 2%) presented by Stanford University in USA. Professor Yadulla Hasanli, Head of Laboratory, was awarded the honorary title "Honored Scientist". Seven employees of the ICS were awarded DPMTS Certificates of Merit. The 70th anniversary of Academician Asaf Hajiyev and the 80th anniversary of Corresponding Member of ANAS Gorkhmaz Imanov were marked by the relevant decisions of the Presidium of ANAS.
The academician also addressed the state of execution of the tasks arising from the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On celebrating the 100th anniversary of the outstanding scientist Lotfi Zadeh", the relevant decrees, as well as the decisions of the state program, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Presidium of ANAS and the General Assembly of DPMTS.
7 important scientific results were obtained at the ICS in 14 areas of research in the reporting year. In total, 416 scientific works of the institute's employees were published. According to Ali Abbasov, out of 142 works published outside the country, 89 were published in the impact-factor publications indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus bases.
The speaker emphasized that 206 papers of our scientists had been presented at 91 conferences held in our country and abroad. The texts of 30 of these papers were published in the collection included in the database Web of Science. works of the Institute's employees were referenced 2,332 times in the reporting year. Speaking about the grants of republican and international level, academician Ali Abbasov mentioned that 5 Eurasian patents had been received.
In his speech, General Director recalled the International Conference on Problems of Logistics, Management and Operation in the East-West transport Corridor (PLMO) held in October 2021, organized by Institute of Control Systems, Silesian University of Technology (Poland), Azerbaijan Technical University and Georgian Technical University. "Azerbaijan is located at the intersection of East-West and North-South transport corridors, and taking advantage of this beneficial location, the development of transit potential is one of the main priorities of transport policy in the region," the academician emphasized.
Ali Abbasov also touched on the activities of the ICS in the area of cooperation with numerous international research centers abroad, the state of e-science, the relationship of fundamental science with education, innovation, publishing and sencyclopedia, personnel training, propaganda and popularization of scientific knowledge in the media.
According to the scientist, the number of visits to the official website of the institute www.isi.az has significantly increased in 2021, reaching the highest figure in the last 5 years.
Then the participants of the online meeting were informed about the important results achieved at the National Academy of Aviation in the relevant scientific field. Afig Hasanov, Corresponding Member of ANAS said that during the reporting year 30 scientific researches in 12 scientific fields had been carried out at the NAA. Speaking of the results, the scientist said that the faculty of the academy had obtained 7 patents for their inventions and 260 scientific works had been published, of these, 96 in collections abroad.
Afig Hasanov also talked about participation of the employees in national and international conferences in 2021, their mutual cooperation with local and foreign research and higher educational institutions.
Presenting the report at the meeting, the chair of the General Assembly of the DPMTS, Vice President of ANAS, Academician Rasim Aliguliyev positively evaluated the research work carried out in all three institutions, assessed their serious successes, noticeable in comparison with previous years, in terms of compliance with national, strategic interests of our country and other important performance indicators.
The chair paid special attention to the International Conference on Problems of Logistics, Management and Operation in the East-West transport Corridor. According to Rasim Aliguliyev, Azerbaijan's favorable geographical location allows our country to take an important place at the intersection of the East-West and North-South transport corridors.
The scientist stressed that purposeful economic policy implemented under the leadership of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and numerous infrastructure projects that had already become reality further increased the geographical significance of our country.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil project, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, segments of the Southern Gas Corridor, the Baku International Sea Trade Port and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad, and the construction of the Baku International Sea Trade Port have opened up great opportunities for our country to become an important transport hub and a new logistical space within the framework of successful international cooperation.
Rasim Aliguliyev recalled that in April 2021 President Ilham Aliyev spoke at the 77th session of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. He also spoke about the large-scale rehabilitation and reconstruction works carried out in the liberated territories. To this end, he brought to attention the importance of applying the concepts of "green energy", "smart city" and "smart village", implementation of infrastructure projects based on smart technologies. He spoke about the importance of the Zangezur transport corridor. "As Mr. President rightly said, the Zangezur corridor will enable Azerbaijan to strengthen its position as a transport and logistics center of Eurasia," the academician stressed.
Chair of the General Meeting Rasim Aliguliyev noted that the ICS and other institutions of DPMTS have the necessary human resources for the intellectualization of transport, application of artificial intelligence technologies in its management, unmanned transport, study of the future prospects of transport and logistics infrastructure in our country, interdisciplinary research and important scientific advances. The Vice President of ANAS also voiced a number of proposals in this regard.
Rasim Aliguliev also spoke about the importance of scientific-theoretical, innovative research addressing the global challenges of the IV industrial revolution and the world, the national and strategic interests of our country. He stressed that the implementation of personnel training in such important specialties as Data Analytics, Soft engineering, financial mathematics, software engineering, cybercrime, meeting the requirements of modern world science and the world labor market, is a seminal issue. Academicians Fikret Aliyev, Javad Abdinov, Adil Garibov, Asaf Hajiyev, Corresponding Members of ANAS Afig Hasanov, Vagif Guliyev, Oktay Gasimov and Ramiz Aliguliyev took part in discussions on the reports. In conclusion, the General Assembly of the DPMTS unanimously voted for the adoption and submission to the Presidium of ANAS of the reports of the Institute of Biophysics, the Institute of Control Systems and the National Academy of Aviation on the results of research activities carried out in 2021.