Dear colleagues! Dear friends!

I am happy to welcome you to our traditional conference on the physics of ultracold atoms. If we are not mistaken in our calculations, the conference will be held for the fifteenth time. During this time, a long way has been passed. From a one-day workshop of the participants of the SB RAS integration project, at which the results of the year were summed up, to a full-scale All-Russian conference with a wide geographical coverage. In fact, scientists from abroad have been participating in the conference for many years. Until recently, these were Russian-speaking participants, so Russian remained the official language of the conference. Last year was the first experience of a talk in English, which was considered successful. This year, on the initiative of Academician Bagayev, which was supported by Academician Shalagin and the program committee of the conference, it was decided to take the next step towards a full-scale international conference format. There are two important points. The conference becomes bilingual. The official languages of the conference are Russian and English. About 10 outstanding English-speaking speakers were specially invited, which we hope will lead to an increase in the impact and significance of our conference.

In doing so, we continue to support the democratic, inclusive traditions of our conference. Participation in the conference is free, i.e. the registration fee is zero. The selection of reports is carried out exclusively on a scientific basis. All accepted speakers are entitled to an equal talk length, this year for 30 minutes, including questions and answers. The conference ends with a friendly dinner, where the results and plans for the future are discussed. Dinner expenses are covered by all participants. This year, as in the past, the dinner will be held in an online format, i.e. during a special Zoom session.

It is clear from the conference program that we have intensive work ahead during the next three days. I hope this work will be successful.

Alexey Taichenachev