And so – on pages 1 and 3 of the issue No 74 of the newspaper "Padomju Jaunatne” (“Soviet Youth") of April 15, 1979 (the full version of the article available from the Latvian National Digital Library (periodika.lv)), it is stated that “nowadays, the university’s institute is unthinkable without students. And there are plenty of them at the Institute.” The Institute had a Council of Young Scientists, which had established a “Candidate Minimum School” and organized lectures for future science candidates. The Council of Young Scientists was chaired by Linards Skuja, a postgraduate student, who believed that young scientists needed something unique only for them. And so, the Council had established a tradition of identifying the Institute's best young scientist. In 1979, the title was awarded to Juris Purāns, a graduate student at the Institute's Thermal Activation Spectroscopy Laboratory. In 1979, the institute employed 100 scientists, including 3 Doctors of Science and 31 doctoral candidates. The ISSP director of that time, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Juris Zaķis, defined his task - not only to continue and develop the traditions of solid-state physics in the republic but also to take care of the training of young specialists and raise their qualification.
At present, the Institute employs more than 80 students, and their number is constantly growing. CAMART2 project manager, Doctor of Physics Mārtiņš Rutkis says that most students come to the institute to develop their bachelor's theses, master's theses and very often doctoral theses, and then stay to work at the institute. Lectures for aspiring science candidates or doctoral students still take place today. Every Wednesday, young researchers can attend the doctoral school/workshop "Functional Materials and Nanotechnologies" in person or online. Representatives from industry, local and foreign researchers as well as the students themselves take the floor during the workshops and talk about topical subjects and research in the fields of functional materials and nanotechnologies both in Latvia and the world.
Dr.phys. Andris Anspoks, Director of the Institute: "Our institute is famous for the fact that we have a lot of young people and young people largely determine the rhythm of our lives because they are a dynamic part of it."
Passion drives progress!
