Year Spent at GWUMC Profits
Russian Professor
When Nikolai Shpanov,
PhD, returned to the Siberian city of Kurgan, Russia after spending
a year at GW Medical Center, he carried back two new physiology
courses for his home institution, and a research paper presented
at a U.S. national conference. Dr. Shpanov, travelling in the
company of his wife, Nadejda, and his son, Yuri, participated
in the Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP), administered
by the American Council of Teachers of Russian. He was among nine
JFDP scholars hosted at GW and the first hosted by a department
of GWUMC.
Dr. Shpanov is an instructor of physiology in
the Department of Zoology at the Kurgan State University, in the
Siberian region of Russia. He spent the past year working in GWUMC
laboratories and observing classes in the Department of Physiology
and Experimental Medicine. His mentor for the year was William
Weglicki, MD, interim chair of the department, and Andrei Kamarov,
PhD, assistant research professor.
Dr. Shpanov marveled at the opportunities U.S.
faculty have for conducting research, noting that funds for research
are now very scarce in the university where he teaches. Government
funding is the main source of research support and there currently
is little funding available. He is thrilled to have prepared two
courses while at GWUMC, a major objective of his year abroad;
he prepared an environmental physiology course and an exercise
physiology course. "I collected numerous materials for these
courses," he said. "This was a main part of my visit.
Also, I did a
significant amount of research work with Dr. Kamanov and Dr. Weglicki."
According to Dr. Kamarov, who also was educated
in Russia, "It is very useful for us to host someone who
can participate in our research and contribute to that effort.
In that process, Dr. Shpanov receives something in return-he teaches
physiology back home and saw how it is done here. In the laboratory
here, we added the research dimension."
GW's participation in the JFDP program
is coordinated by Wafa Abou-Zaki, executive director of GW's Research
Program in Social and Organizational Learning. According to Ms.
Abou-Zaki, GW has a very good reputation among host universities.
"We encourage our scholars to be academically active by writing
and presenting papers at conferences and by observing as many
classes as they can," she said. "We would not be able
to achieve what we have without the help of the mentors and the
assistance of the various departments." Next year, 11 scholars
will be posted at GW.
(From left, Andrei Kamarov, PhD, assistant research professor
of physiology, Nikolai Shpanov, PhD, JFDP visitor, and William
Weglicki, MD, professor and interim chair of physiology.)
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2001 The George Washington University Medical Center
