In September 2023 open days were held at the Institute of Physics SB RAS for high school students from specialized physics and mathematics schools of the city.

The heads of the laboratories, Ivan Timofeev and Sergei Ovchinnikov, greeted the schoolchildren with a welcoming speech. The scientists remembered how they themselves were high school students and how they came to big science. Therefore, the staff of the institute is pleased with the growing interest of modern schoolchildren in the study of physics and its laws.

Then, the visitors went to the institute's laboratories, where schoolchildren had the opportunity to communicate with scientists, ask them questions and get acquainted with scientific equipment.

Shoolchildren visited the laboratory of molecular spectroscopy, where Mikhail Krakhalev, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, senior researcher, told about liquid crystals - substances that have the properties of both a liquid and a solid. In the laboratory of strong magnetic fields, Denis Gokhfeld, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, senior researcher, conducted a demonstration experiment on levitation and showed the peculiarities of the behavior of a magnet in a strong magnetic field. In the laboratory of the physics of magnetic phenomena, visitors were shown the Angara vacuum installation for deposition of magnetic nanomaterials, where thin magnetic films are produced and studied under vacuum conditions. In the laboratory of radio spectroscopy and spin electronics, schoolchildren could see an atomic microscope, which has no analogues in Russia. Schoolchildren were surprised by microphotographs of nanometer-sized objects, a thousand times thinner than a human hair. In the laboratory of photonics of molecular systems, schoolchildren learned how plants feed on sunlight and that a leaf structure can be printed on a 3D printer for artificial photosynthesis.

A highlight was the visit to the Science Museum at the Institute of Physics. Its curator, Lyudmila Khrustaleva, told the schoolchildren the history of the creation of Academgorodok and the role of Leonid Vasilyevich Kirensky, the founder of the Institute. In the museum, visitors could see the personal belongings of the famous physicist, his archival records, diaries and photographs.

“The Institute of Physics opens its doors to schoolchildren interested in science. We organized tours of the laboratories to show how and what Krasnoyarsk scientists are working on. A scientific institute is a serious institution with expensive installations and safety precautions, so excursions here are performed with due attention. This time we were visited by students from the Physics and Mathematics School at Siberian Federal University, secondary school No. 115 and other schools in the city, as well as by members of the family science club “Owlet”. Several groups arrived on school buses, and one group traveled to Akademgorodok from Solnechny by public transport. After an hour and a half, the guys got tired. So visitires were given some tea, and they continued the excursion with renewed vigor. We saw not just a request from schoolchildren and teachers, but real efforts to comprehend the eternal laws of the universe, and therefore we want to make the open days a regular event,” said Ivan Timofeev, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Photonics of Molecular Systems, Deputy Director of the L.V. Kirensky Institute of Physics SB RAS