First Vice-Rector of Tomsk State University Victor Dyomin participated as a key speaker at the 6th Summer School in Indonesia, where he told about the digital holographic camera (DHC) developed at TSU for underwater monitoring and underwater observatories. The unique technology makes it possible to assess the state of the ecosystem in real time based on the behavior of plankton and identify pollution in the early stages. Now the Indonesian partners are discussing the possibility of creating the DHC-based underwater bioindication observatories on seismic platforms along the coast of Java.

The next step in joint cooperation was the participation of the first vice-rector of TSU Victor Dyomin in the 6th Summer School “Strategies for adaptation to climate change and disaster risk reduction from an interdisciplinary point of view”. The event was hosted by the Postgraduate School Airlangga University (UNAIR, Surabaya) and the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS). The event brought together about 150 participants, including leading researchers and practitioners from Asian, European countries and Russia. It was the first vice-rector of TSU who was invited as an instructor from our country. At the same time, Victor Dyomin became one of the two key speakers along with the Deputy Minister of Environment of Indonesia Diaz Faisal Malik Hendropriyono.

The report by Victor Dyomin “Underwater observatories for monitoring the climatic and ecological state of water areas” considered a digital holographic camera (DHC), created by scientists from the TSU Faculty of Radiophysics. Unlike traditional shooting methods, holography allows getting not just an image, but a three-dimensional display of particles in the water column. This gives researchers the ability to measure the concentration, size, shape, and even behavior of plankton organisms in real time without disturbing their natural habitat.

Based on this data, the researchers learned to identify early signs of pollution. One of the techniques – fixation of the phototropic response of plankton (i.e., how the body reacts to light) – allows obtaining the result in a few hours. Another technique – the analysis of plankton biorhythms using Fourier transform – gives a more accurate picture in two to three days. This approach makes it possible to detect a threat long before it is recorded by traditional chemical analyzes.

The digital holographic camera (DHC) was developed as part of the strategic direction “Global changes in the Earth: climate, ecology, quality of life”, which is being implemented with the support of the TSU Development Program for 2025-2036 and the federal program “Priority 2030”. The camera has already been tested on expeditions in the Kara and Barents Seas, on Lake Baikal, in the Black Sea, as well as on the North Pole ice-resistant platform as part of the North Pole-42 expedition. Now scientists propose to create underwater observatories on its basis for continuous monitoring.

— The proposal to place such observatories, for example, along the coast of Java, was met with great interest, says Victor Dyomin. – The fact is that Indonesia plans to deploy a network of seismic stations to track underwater earthquakes. This opens up the possibility of installing our sensors on these platforms. They have no analogues, and colleagues are really interested. In general, there are several groups in the world that are engaged in underwater holography – in Florida, in Canada, in Scotland. But none of them use this data for monitoring – with highlighted signs using which we can assess the state of the ecosystem and identify pollution at an early stage. Commercial analogues also give too little information and do not allow drawing reliable conclusions. For monitoring you need a lot of data, and monitoring itself is not an easy process. This is our advantage.

In addition to participating in the Summer School, Victor Dyomin held meetings with representatives of the UNAIR Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, as well as the ITS Faculty of Marine Engineering. Of particular importance was the meeting with the Vice-Rector of ITS for Science, Innovation, Cooperation and Work with Alumni, Professor Agus Muhamad Hatta. The parties discussed the possibility of creating joint monitoring systems and conducting joint research.

— We offer our colleagues both our equipment and staff training to work with it, – said Victor Dyomin. – For the university, this is not only an opportunity to commercialize research results. From a scientific point of view, we are also interested in the equipment working in different water areas and accumulating information. This will allow us to develop methods for interpreting data.

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Tomsk State University has been developing cooperation with Indonesia since 2015. During this time, it signed agreements with 20 organizations, including 12 universities, a representative office of the University of Tomsk was opened at the Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) in Surabaya, two joint research centers of TSU and Raden Intan State Islamic University were created in Lampung on the basis of a partner university: Tropical Seas Research Center and Halal Analysis Center. In 2024, TSU became the only Russian university participating in the professional track of the mobility program – Indonesian International Student Mobility Awards (IISMA) with two programs: Digital Media and Hospitality and Tourism. 29 Indonesian students were trained within these programs.

In 2025, TSU received a grant for joint research with Indonesian partners in the field of marine sciences.

Now TSU has 76 Indonesian students. In 2025-2026, the ORMO Olympiad was held for the first time on the basis of two Indonesian schools (SMAS Amanatul Ummah and SMA Maryam Surabaya). 13 people went to the final stage, of which three people will join TSU in the 2026/2027 academic year.