Kazakh and UK scientists win
prestigious NATO Science Prize

The NATO Science Partnership Prize for 2007 will be awarded to scientists from Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom for excellent collaboration in a NATO-sponsored project on radiological risk in Kazakhstan.  

The Prize will be awarded by the NATO Deputy Secretary General in a ceremony at NATO Headquarters on Thursday, 22 March 2007.

Professor Mukash Burkitbayev (Kazakhstan) and Professor Nick Priest (UK) will receive the prize for their work assessing radioactive contamination at the nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, which was operated by the former Soviet Union.

Within this site (approximate size 18 500 square kilometres) over 450 nuclear devices were detonated over a 40-year period ending in 1989. The facility was officially closed by the Kazakh government in 1992. In a recent visit to NATO Headquarters, the President of Kazakhstan highlighted this NATO-sponsored activity as being of particular importance to his nation.

The high-quality radiological laboratory set up under this project at the al Farabi  National University in Almaty provides Kazakhstan with a much needed capability to analyse radiation risks. The laboratory also provides a means for training young Kazakh scientists.

The Prize consists of a €10,000 grant to each of the winners to support their further research, as well as an official certificate and a special crystal trophy.

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