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The Isaac Newton Institute opened its Branch in September 2000. The formal agreement has been signed with Prof. Veniamin Vityazev, Director of the Astronomical Institute of St.Petersburg State University in Russia.

The staff members belong to all major astronomical centers in St.Petersburg, such as the Astronomical Institute of SPbSU, the Pulkovo Observatory, the Institute of Applied Astronomy and the Ioffe Institute.

The Astronomical Institute of Petersburg State University is one of the best known astronomical organizations in Russia. It was established in 1881 as Astronomical Observatory at the Chair of Astronomy of St. Petersburg University (the Chair was organized in 1819). Since 1999 it is entitled as Sobolev Astronomical Institute. The staff of the Institute includes about 60 scientists. The main fields of research are cosmology, observations of active galaxies and variable stars, physics and evolution of stars, solar physics, dynamics of gravity systems, celestial mechanics, astrometry, cosmic hydrodynamics, theory of radiation transfer, light scattering theory, astrospectroscopy and development of special astronomical software.

The Main Astronomical Observatory (Pulkovo Observatory) opened in 1839 was the first astronomical institution in Russia. For a long time, it was the principal observatory in Russia and USSR. The current staff of the observatory consists of 160 scientists. The research areas are radioastronomy, physics of galactic nuclei, X-ray sources and young stars, solar physics, solar-terrestrial relations, celestial mechanics and stellar dynamics, astrometry, geophysics, development of astronomical methods and construction of optical devices. The observatory also develops cosmic projects such as: ``Struve'', ``Geobs'', ``Stereoscope''.

The Institute of Applied Astronomy was founded in 1987 due to the decree of the Academy of Sciences of USSR for realization of the biggest national astronomical project - establishment of the very long baseline radio interferometrical network ``QUASAR''. Over 130 scientists work in the Institute. Main fields of research are in radioastronomy, relativistic celestial mechanics, radioastrometry, ephemerides astronomy, cosmic geodesy, geodynamics, development of astronomical software, data processing methods, creation of hardware for radioastronomy.

The Ioffe Institute is one of Russia's largest institutions for research in physics and technology with a wide variety of operating projects. It was founded in 1918 and run for several decades by Abram F. Ioffe. The Institute is affilated with the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Contact address: resh@astro.spbu.ru

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