An annual conference of scientists in the Russian Academy of Sciences

An annual conference of scientists opened in the Russian Academy of Sciences on Wednesday, reported the Academy's public relations coordinator Igor Milovidov. At this conference the Academy's awards will be presented to a number of Russian and foreign scientists. Then the conference will discuss a new structure of the Academy which was worked out by its Presidium. It will be proposed to leave only nine, out of the eighteen earlier existing scientific trends of the Academy. The re-organisers believe that this will make it possible to considerably cut the apparatus of the Academy and to raise the level of running its research institutions. "The Academy marks 2002 as the Year of Ukraine, and for this reason scientists from that friendly country are taking part in this annual conference," said Igor Milovidov. "The Ukrainian delegation consists of fifteen scientists headed by President of the Ukrainian Academy, Academician Boris Paton."