SAS people

At the moment SAS employs full-time faculty from 10 countries, the majority of whom received their PhDs from universities ranked in the top 100 in the world (according to THE and QS World University Rankings)

faculty
administration
staff
visiting faculty
former faculty (2017-2023)
name
research fields
Aleksey Lysenko
IT

Aleksey Lysenko is a co-founder and assistant director of the Institute of Emerging Technologies “School X.”  In his past career, he was the head of the robotics resource center at the Don State Technical University (Rostov-on Don, Russia).

a.lysenko@utmn.ru

Andrey Shcherbenok
literature, film studies, higher education

After finishing a high school with extensive training in physics and mathematics in Saint Petersburg and the first year at the Faculty of Physics at Saint Petersburg State University, Andrey Shcherbenok moved to the Faculty of Philology at the same university. He graduated with the Specialist’s degree in 1998 and defended his Candidate’s of Science dissertation titled “Deconstruction and Classical Russian Literature” in 2001.

a.shcherbenok@utmn.ru

Ahmed Elghandour
higher education, international relations

Ahmed is responsible for overseeing the SAS educational operation and implementing SAS education-related strategies. He also coordinates the AI-related experiments within SAS curriculum and organization of SAS flagship events.

a.elghandour@utmn.ru

Ashraf Ismail
economics

Ashraf Ismail received his PhD from Cornell University (USA) in 2008. He specializes in Monetary Economics, Quantitative Finance and Applied Game Theory. He has more than 20 years of experience teaching Economics and Finance at several universities across the United States, Asia, and Europe.

a.ismail@utmn.ru

Birol Baskan
international relations

Birol Baskan received his PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University in 2006 and has since then taught various political science courses in different higher education institutions.

b.bashkan@utmn.ru

Vladimir Orlov
musicology

Vladimir Orlov is a PhD in musicology from Cambridge University successfully defending the dissertation «Soviet Cantatas and Oratorios by Sergei Prokofiev in Their Social and Cultural Context» His research interests include a variety of topics such as Russian cultural history (the 19th Century, fin-de-siècle, Soviet and post-Soviet culture), and recently the psychology of music, and music education.

v.orlov@utmn.ru

Devin Wangert
theories of technological development

Devin Wangert is a Canadian scholar who holds a PhD from Harvard University in Visual Studies. He also holds an MA in Media and Communications from the European Graduate School and a BA in Film Studies and Cultural Studies from McGill University.

Devin teaches courses in media studies, surveillance studies, political economy, and the history of science.

d.wangert@utmn.ru

Dmitry Yakovlev
technological entrepreneurship , project management

Dmitry Yakovlev studied physics at University of Tyumen. His scientific interests include scanning probe microscopy and the processes of heat and mass transfer in micro- and nanostructures.

Kimberly Mc Cabe
sociology

Kimberly Mc Cabe, Ph.D., before joining SAS held Professor of Criminology position at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia. Her academic degrees include BA in maths education from Virginia Tech, MA in criminal justice and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of South Carolina. She successfully completed postdoc fellowship at the University of Michigan as well as special education in educational management at Harvard University.

k.mccabe@utmn.ru

Maksim Semyonov
sociology

Associate Professor of the Department of General and Economic Sociology of the Financial and Economic Institute of the University of Tyumen, received a higher education in the direction of “State and Municipal Administration” at UTMN in 2012.

m.y.semenov@utmn.ru

Peter Lešnik
film and media studies

Born in Slovenia, Peter Lešnik obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy). In 2019, he earned his Ph.D. in cinema and media studies from the University of Pennsylvania (USA). He is currently transforming his dissertation into a book manuscript, focusing on Michelangelo Antonioni’s screen adaptations of literary texts.

p.leshnik@utmn.ru

Rafael Contreras Luna
international relations

Dr. Rafael Contreras Luna is a Mexican scholar who received in 2017 his PhD from Durham University, United Kingdom. He holds a master’s degree from Saint Petersburg State University and a bachelor’s degree from Ibero-American University, Mexico City.

r.luna@utmn.ru

Xindi Li
media archeology

Xindi is a PhD candidate in History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she currently holds an MA. She also holds a BA in English: Cultural Studies and East Asian Studies from McGill University in Montréal.

x.li@utmn.ru

Tamara Ivanova
law

Tamara received a Master's Degree in International Financial Law in Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In her Master Thesis, written in cooperation with the University of Calgary (Canada), Tamara researched aspects of taxation regulation of Oil & Gas industries in Russia and Canada.

t.ivanova@utmn.ru

Emile Alexandrov
philosophy

Emile Alexandrov studied philosophy at the University of Notre Dame (Australia). The primary focus of his bachelor’s and master’s degrees was on German and Greek philosophy, especially Heidegger and the Ancient Greek tradition. His Doctoral work shifted his focus towards Neoplatonism and the problem of non-discursive thinking throughout late Antiquity and early Middle Ages.

e.aleksandrov@utmn.ru