St. Petersburg University eyes more foreign scholars - Rector
Nikolai Kropachev, Rector of St. Petersburg State University, tells RBTH about what kind of foreign specialists are in demand in his university, how foreign scientists can get access to the resources of the Research Park, and how degrees offered to foreign students are changing.
For a long time St. Petersburg State University (SPbU) has been overshadowed by the more famous Moscow State University. However, now, in many areas, such as access to research equipment or academic publications, and degree of globalization, SPbU is starting to overtake its main rival. Rector Nikolai Kropachev talks to RBTH what else the university can offer foreign students and researchers.
What kind of foreign specialists does the university attract?
We have internationally renowned academicians and leaders in their fields working for us. For example, the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Economics Christopher Antoniou Pissarides.
The winner of the Fields Medal in Mathematics (often described as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics) Prof Stanislav Smirnov, a graduate of our university, has been heading The Chebyshev Laboratory since 2010.
There is Prof Stephen J. O’Brien, who heads the Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics. He came from the U.S. five years ago, and St. Petersburg State University is now his sole employer. The main project that he is heading at our university is called Genome Russia. One of its best-known recent achievements, which have already won our scientists international recognition, is the DNA sequencing of the Amur tiger, the cheetah and other animals.
We are happy to provide researchers like that with the right conditions necessary for their work and advanced equipment. We offer them a competitive pay package.
We are not only interested in established scientists but also in post-doctoral students. In recent years, we have had more than 150 of them, with the majority coming from universities outside Russia. We attract talented Master’s and PhD students, who study with us and after graduation we invite them to carry on working at the St. Petersburg State University as teachers or researchers.
We are also interested in attracting qualified engineers to the Research Park. Out of all the new laboratories that we have set up over the last 15 years there is not a single one that does not have foreign specialists. Thus, we are promoting academic mobility and are laying a foundation for creating closely-knit international research teams.
Many Russian universities do not provide foreigners or non-university staff access to research equipment. How is this issue being tackled at the St. Petersburg University?
The Research Park is an area of over 30,000 square meters housing over $200 million worth of advanced research equipment. This equipment is not just up to world standards, but some of it has no equivalents neither in Russian universities nor the majority of leading foreign universities.
The Research Park is open to internal and external users alike: graduate and postgraduate students, doctoral students and staff. All it takes is to fill in an online registration form and submit your research topic. Graduate and PhD students can have unlimited access to the facilities if it is relevant for their research program.