Armenian Photographer’s photo project about Aragats Cosmic Ray Station featured in The New York Times

The Aragats Cosmic Ray Research Station in Armenia—a once bustling center of physics, devoted to the study of cosmic rays—is the focus of a fresh article by The New York Times. The Author of the article is Dennis Overbye. The photos are taken by Armenian photographer Yulia Grigoryants.

The Aragats Cosmic Ray Research Station, a branch of the A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory in Yerevan, was established in 1943, when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union. In its heyday, more than 100 scientists worked there keeping track of the hard rain from space.

Now sometimes only three people work there, keeping steady watch on machines that watch the universe. But, surprisingly, science has survived and thrived there. In recent years the station’s work has focused on solar physics and the high-speed protons thrown from the surface of the sun — space weather, in short. The lab has also investigated radiation that hits Earth’s surface from thunderstorms. As a result the lab, despite losing most of its funds and work force, has increased its production of publications and conference reports tenfold in the past two decades, Dr. Ashot Chilingaryan, director of the A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory and head of its Cosmic Ray Division said. His scientists delivered five papers at a recent geophysics meeting in San Francisco.

NY Times Columnist Dennis Overbye is a science writer specializing in physics and cosmology. He has written two books: “Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, The Scientific Search for the Secret of the Universe” (HarperCollins 1991, and Little, Brown, 1999), and “Einstein in Love, A Scientific Romance” (Viking, 2000). As a result of the latter, there are few occasions for which he cannot rustle up a quotation – appropriate or not – from Albert Einstein.

Photographer Yulia Grigoryants is an independent photographer from Armenia currently living between France and Armenia. Her extensive professional background in documentary film production helped develop her storytelling abilities while covering social, cultural, and human rights issues around the world, including conflict zones.

Born in 1984 in Baku, Azerbaijan, she fled the country in 1988 with her family because of the violence against the Armenian population. She resides in Yerevan.  In 2016 Yulia won The Best New Talent award at the International Photography Awards (IPACIS). She was nominated for the annual Lucie Awards (2016) and shortlisted for the prestigious Sony World Photography award (2017). Yulia’s work has been exhibited in France (Council of Europe’s house in Strasbourg), Russia, China, at the UN House in Armenia and published internationally, including in the Washington Post, L’oeil de la Photographie and others.