The Stanford Russian-American Forum SURF is a non-profit organization whose goal is to promote cooperation between students from leading universities in Russia and the United States through joint research in the fields of politics, business, economics, and several others. The SURF program begins with an autumn conference in Moscow, followed by 6 months of work on joint research projects and a final conference at Stanford University in spring. The program has been operating for 7 years, and already more than 240 bachelors, masters and graduate students from Russia and the United States have taken part in it.
Content
History
The Stanford US – Russia Forum was founded in the fall of 2008 by four students at Stanford and Moscow State Universities (MSU) who wanted to support the discussion of the possibilities of cooperation between Russia and the United States despite the deterioration of relations due to the Russian-Georgian conflict .
The first public event at SURF was a one-day conference in November 2008 at Moscow State University, the purpose of which was to discuss the most acute problems in bilateral relations between Russia and the United States. The conference attracted a lot of attention from students, with students from Moscow State University, MGIMO , the Higher School of Economics , the Russian Academy of National Economy and the Public Service under the President of the Russian Federation , as well as students from Stanford University, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania .
In the autumn of 2009, SURF launched a 6-month student exchange program, in which 20 American and 20 Russian students selected by competition participated. In the autumn of the same year, SURF delegates took part in a number of online seminars, the lectures of which were given by Dmitry Trenin (director of the Moscow Carnegie Center ) and Donald Kennedy (chief editor of Science Magazine). In the winter, SURF participants in small groups, communicating over the Internet, continued to work on joint research projects. The program ended with a conference at Stanford in April 2010, at which the organizers, participants and sponsors of SURF, as well as specially invited persons met. The lectures were made by the 66th US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation A.V. Dvorkovich and former adviser to US President Bill Clinton on Russia and Ukraine Coit Blacker. After the conference, the results of joint research projects were published in the SURF Journal. The first student exchange program SURF was officially awarded by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia S.V. Lavrov for strengthening ties between civil societies of the Russian Federation and the United States. [one]
Program
Structure
Since 2010, the SURF student exchange program consists of two components: conferences and a joint research project. The program begins each autumn from a weekly conference in Moscow, during which participants meet with representatives of the scientific community, business environment and politics in order to discuss issues of bilateral relations between Russia and the United States. 20 American and 20 Russian students also get to know each other and pose specific research questions for future joint research projects.
Work on joint research projects lasts 6 months. Research areas include security in cyberspace, health, nuclear and energy issues, the media, cooperation in space, entrepreneurship and business, cooperation in the Arctic and environmental issues, and a number of others. In some cases, research questions are posed to groups by sponsoring organizations in order to help groups conduct research that is currently relevant. The sponsoring organizations are the Carnegie Foundation, the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Renova, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and The Boeing Company.
In the spring, participants meet at Stanford University during the final conference to present the results of their research. In addition, participants have the opportunity to discuss Russian-American relations with prominent experts from various fields of activity.
The SURF conference is held at the Freeman Spolgy Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, and is also supported by such Russian universities as Moscow State University, MGIMO, the Higher School of Economics and the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation.
Members
More than 240 students from 65 Russian, American and international universities have already participated in the program. The program accepts bachelors, masters and graduate students of any directions and faculties, experience in bilateral Russian-American relations is not required. Preference is given to students with good academic performance and high social activity. The selection for the program is carried out on a competitive basis: in 2014-15, the competition was about 13 people per place.
Famous Guest Speakers
Coit Blacker, Former Special Assistant to the President of the United States on National Security Issues and Director of the Department of Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia at the National Security Council of the United States
Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
Michael McFaul , former US ambassador to Russia , former special assistant to the president of the United States and director of the Russian and Eurasian department at the US National Security Council
Vladimir Mau , Rector of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation
William Perry , former US Secretary of Defense
Sergey Petrov , Consul General of Russia in San Francisco
Condoleezza Rice , former US Secretary of State
Dmitry Trenin , Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center
Siegfried Hecker, former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Stephen Chu , former US Secretary of Energy
George Schulz , former US Secretary of State
Universities represented
US Universities
American University
Boston College
Brandeu University
Harvard University
Yale university
University of California, Berkeley
University of California Davis
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Kansas
Columbia university
Cornell University
Middlebury College
University of Minnesota
New York University , School of Business. Leonard Stern
University of Pennsylvania
Princeton university
Northwestern University , Feinberg Medical School
Stanford University
Georgia Institute of Technology
George Washington University
Rice University
University of Chicago
Russian Universities
High School of Economics
Far Eastern Federal University
Institute of USA and Canada
Kazan University
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (s) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Moscow State University
Moscow School of Management "Skolkovo"
Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation
Russian Economic University named after G.V. Plekhanov
Russian School of Economics
Samara State University
St. Petersburg State University
Northeastern Federal University
Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology
South Federal University
International Universities
American University in Afghanistan
Cambridge university
London Business School
Bocconi University
University of Passau
Links
- ↑ Dvorkovich talks Russian economics The Stanford Daily. (April 15, 2010)]
• Stanford welcomes American, Russian student scholars The Stanford Daily (April, 2011)
• SURF: Following the second way of diplomacy HSE news portal (April, 2011)
• Final conference SURF 2011 MGIMO news portal (April, 2011)
• Stanford + MSU Training & Career (March, 2011)
• FEFU student selected to participate in the SURF IMF FEFU news portal. (October, 2010)
• Stanford US-Russia Forum 2011 News Portal FMP MSU. (July, 2010)
• Moscow conference SURF started its work MGIMO news portal (October 21, 2010)
• SURFing on the waves of Russian-American relations (inaccessible link) HSE news portal (May 19, 2010)
• Stanford US-Russia Forum 2011 (interview with one of the SURF founders) MGIMO news portal (April 06, 2010)