Prof. Vladimir Lipunov from Lomonosov Moscow State University,Physics Department visited Iran and Isfahan University of Technology (IUT) from June 25 to 28, 2023, to extend internationalscientific collaboration between Iranian National Observatory (INO) and IUT's Department of Physics. He is the head of the MASTERGlobal Robotic Network, which follows up observations of high-energy transient sources such as gamma-ray bursts and supernovae using nine ground-based telescopes located in five countries. During his visit, Prof. Lipunov and Dr. Soroush Shakeri from IUT's Department of Physics visited the INO site on June 27 to consider different directions of collaboration in observing high-energy sources with Iranian telescopes.
On June 28, Prof. Lipunov met with Dr. Masaddegh, the Director of IUT's International and Scientific Cooperation Center, and Dr. Kalantari, the head of the Physics Department, to discuss scientific exchanges
between IUT and the MASTER network in student education, astrophysical data processing, and participation in high-prestige scientific research in astrophysics.
With IUT located only 137 km away from the INO site, the university is well-placed to collaborate with INO,and the visit by Prof. Lipunov builds on previous discussions about international scientific cooperation and IUT's role as a host institution for foreign astronomers.