ANSEF : FAR Blog

[ANSEF]: Armenian National Science and Education Fund Fights Armenia’s Brain Drain.

May 11, 2012 12:48 pm

For the past 12 years, the Armenian National Science and Education Fund (ANSEF) has enabled Armenia’s scientists to pursue cutting-edge research. This support has contributed to innovation and advancement in Armenia as ANSEF has enabled many to strengthen and broaden their work without having to leave their native country. A recent article by Florence Avakian in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator highlights the importance of this program through interviews with Cornell University professor Dr. Yervant Terzian, an ANSEF founder, along with many others. A major forum will be held at the Academy of Sciences in Yerevan on September 24 to celebrate the more than a decade of success of the ANSEF program.

Click here to download the article in PDF.

[ANSEF]: Profile – Natela Aghamalian.

May 4, 2012 1:32 pm

By Eduard Karapetyan

Natela Aghamalian is someone who has devoted her life to improving scientific development of her mother country. The Institute for Physical Research at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia is one of the country’s leading science centers. Each year more than five research groups from this institute are awarded ANSEF grants. Natela Aghamalian, a leader of one of these groups, received ANSEF grants in 2007 and 2012. In addition, she has received ANSEF grants four times for her individual work. Engaged in research for more than 38 years, she is a member of the Armenian Crystallographic Association and the Armenian Optical Society. Her current ANSEF project focuses on the study of electrical and optical properties, which is important for the development of new chemical and biological sensing applications.

Natela Aghamalian talks with FAR Educational and
Scientific Programs Coordinator Eduard Karapetyan.

Natela Aghamalian (left) has devoted her life
to scientific development in Armenia.
Credit: FAR Staff

[ANSEF]: ANSEF Researcher the Youngest Recipient of State Science Medal.

April 3, 2012 11:16 am

By Eduard Karapetyan

Dr. Karen Dvoyan, a recipient of a 2009 Armenian National Science and Education Fund (ANSEF) grant, was one of the scientists who recently received a 2011 Anania Shirkatsi Medal in the area of precise and natural sciences from the Armenian government. Physicist and member of the Republic of Armenia Academy of Sciences Eduard Ghazarian, and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Professor Hayk Sarkissian also received this award for their past four years of research on the physical properties of the semiconducting nanostuctures with complex geometry. These quantum dots have wide range of applications in light emitting devices, lasers, quantum computing, biology and medicine.

Dr. Dvoyan, 37, is the youngest laureate of state award. He is an associate professor at the Department of Physics and Technology at the Russian-Armenian University. H recently defended his dissertation, which explores the investigation of electronic and optical properties of semiconductor quantum dots, for his post-doctoral PhD in Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

In 2008, he was one of a team of scientists who received the Republic of Armenia President’s Award in the Field of Physics for his series of papers entitled Theoretical Investigation of Semiconductor Nanosystems’ Electronic and Optical Properties. Eduard Ghazarian, Hayk Sarkissian and Lyudvig Petrosyan also received this honor.

Dr. Karen Dvoyan (right) with Armenian President Serg Sargsyan.
Dr. Dvoyan is the youngest scientist to receive the
Anania Shirkatsi Medal from the Armenian government.

Credit: The official site of the President of Armenia

[ANSEF]: FAR Announces 2012 ANSEF Winners.

January 31, 2012 12:55 pm

By Edik Karapetyan

The twelfth annual ANSEF Grants Award Ceremony was held at FAR’s Yerevan Office on January 26. This year, 25 proposals out of the 198 that were submitted received ANSEF grants. Each of these grantees are gifted with $5,000, which they can use to conduct research over the next year.

In his opening speech, FAR Country Director Bagrat Sargsyan congratulated all winners and wished them success in their work. During the ceremony he briefly introduced the 12-year history of FAR’s ANSEF Program. He also mentioned that 283 research groups, which include more than a thousand scientists, have received ANSEF grants, which total more than $1.4 million worth of support. This is a serious contribution to the development of science in Armenia, he noted.

Leading researcher from the V. A. Ambartsumyan Byurakan Observatory Areg Miqayelyan expressed his thankfulness to Dr. Yervant Terzian, the founder of ANSEF, and the ANSEF Grant Research Council for their great contribution. “ANSEF encourages us to be engaged in research, and it encourages youth to record progress and new achievements,” he said.

FAR congratulates this year’s ANSEF winners.

ANSEF is a serious contribution to the development of
science in Armenia, said Country Director Bagrat Sargsyan.

Grantees are gifted $5,000 with which they may
conduct research over the coming year.

“ANSEF encourages us to be engaged in research,
and it encourages youth to record progress and new achievements,”
said ANSEF winner Areg Miqayelyan, a researcher at the
V. A. Ambartsumyan Byurakan Observatory.

Credit: FAR Staff

[ANSEF]: Partnership May Help Armenia’s Economy.

January 23, 2012 12:32 pm

By Veronika Mkrtchyan

Scientific innovation can make a difference for any economy and a newly implemented partnership between the State Engineering University of Armenia (SEUA) and Agroscience Research & Production Ltd., will most likely have positive impact right here in Armenia.

Agroscience Research & Production, which was founded in 2005, produces chemicals used in agriculture. This new partnership will help to further the production of insecticide. The contract between SEUA and Agroscience was the result of the continuous efforts of Aram Mikaelyan and his fellow ANSEF grant recipients whose research is based on the study and synthesis of new physiologically active chemicals and their power as insecticides. As a result of their investigations, the latest “Ciper Maxi” insecticide has been developed and tested at the Armenian Health Ministry’s Research Center for Environmental Health and Toxicology. It was also widely tested in different climate zones on Armenian territory and enclosed in the list of chemicals approved for use in Armenia.

The application of this chemical will not only promote local production but also spurn the creation of high quality and effective, ecologically safe agrochemicals.

During a recent event celebrating the contract, Agroscience Co-founder Vachagan Nushikyan and State Engineering University of Armenia Rector Ara Avetisyan addressed a visiting audience. Avetisyan stressed the importance of such partnerships saying, “Engineering research should be considered the most important component of Armenia’s future economic development. This has strategic value for Armenia’s scientific and educational development.”

During conference

Credit: State Engineering University of Armenia

[ANSEF]: ANSEF Grantees Aim for Innovation.

December 22, 2011 10:19 am

By Edik Karapetyan

Today’s manufacturers of emerging products like laser projectors and laser TVs are awaiting the introduction of powerful, cost-efficient blue and green lasers. Such cost-efficient lasers are the key elements for mass production of such products, but they are not widely available.

ANSEF 2011 grant winner Armen Poghosyan and his team aim to develop new approaches for the manufacturing of the optical elements for wavelength conversion of near-infrared lasers, which is necessary for the production of diode pumped solid state green lasers. Their research group, which is based at the Institute for Physical Research at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, suggests new technology needed for production of the lasers. This year, the group has presented at six international conferences like Photonics West in San Francisco, Optics and Photonics in San-Diego, and EuroDisplay in France. Five articles on their research have been published in journals like Ferroelectrics and SPIE Proceedings.\

ANSEF grantees (left to right) Armen Pogosyan,
PhD, Ruben Hovsepyan, PhD & Eduard Vardanyan, PhD at work.

Their work has received much attention in recent years.

Credit: Eduard Karapetyan

[ANSEF]: ANSEF Provides Opportunity for Scientist Karen Darbinyan.

December 6, 2011 5:38 pm

By Edik Karapetyan

For more than four years Karen Darbinyan, a scientist at the Armbiotechnology Scientific and Production Center, at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, has actively examined the methods of producing food vanillin manufactured from glyoxal. An ANSEF grant gave him an opportunity to further carry out his research on food and nutrition.

During our meeting, Karen emphasized the importance of the following. “Based on the screening of over 250 strains of bacteria, streptomycetes and fungi, several strains of fungi have been isolated, characterized and used for production of glyoxal from ethylene glycol,” he said.

Glyoxal is used in the production of pharmaceuticals, dyes and different polymers, as well as in the manufacture of vanillin. The demand for the vanillin manufactured from glyoxal is expected to increase as the availability of vanillin from lignin – a byproduct of the paper industry – decreases due to environmental concerns. The reducing properties of glyoxal are used in the photographic industry and in glassmaking.

ANSEF grant recipients Karen Darbinyan and Sona Gevorkyan are both PHD students.
Karen Darbinyan and Sona Gevorkyan at work.

Credit: Eduard Karapetyan

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