Download RPN 2015 Faculty Award Winners

The SUNY Russia Programs Network (RPN) is pleased to announce the winners of the
2015 Spring and Summer Travel Awards to St. Petersburg, Russia, for SUNY Faculty.
Spring Travel Awardees travel independently to St. Petersburg, Russia to provide
approximately one week of lectures and pro-seminars (in English) at St. Petersburg State
University and other local institutions. Summer Travel Awardees teach one 3-week
seminar and typically give one general lecture and one short mini-conference
presentation for the 13th New York-St. Petersburg Institute of Linguistics, Cognition and
Culture (NYI), held in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 13-31, 2015.
The 2015 Spring Travel Awardees are:
 James Castracane, Professor (Founding Faculty) and Head of the Nanobioscience
Constellation in the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the SUNY
Polytechnic Institute. Under Dr. Castracane’s guidance, CNSE has assembled a multifaceted Nanobioscience program. These efforts established the critical bioresearch
capabilities, associated technologies and the required infrastructure for a broad
portfolio of programs. Research concentrations range from fundamental stem cell
work to functionalized nanoparticle development to effective integration of tailored
biochemistries of cells/tissues/proteins with innovative nanofabricated structures. His
lectures will focus on the emergence of nanotechnology as a major engine driving
research, education, and economic development throughout the world. More
information about Professor Castracane can be viewed here.

Michaela Porubanova, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Farmingdale State
College. Michaela's research interests lie in cognitive psychology, specifically in the
cognitive mechanisms of cultural transmission, deprivation studies, and the interplay
between emotion and cognition. She will discuss the effect of short-term and longterm deprivation on visual cognition. She published manuscripts in Plos One, IPerception, Journal for the Study of Cognitive Science of Religion, Religion, Brain,
& Behavior, Personality and Individual Differences, and other journals. More
information about Professor Porubanova can be viewed here and here.
The 2015 Summer Travel Awardee is:

Heather D. DeHaan, Director of Russian and East European Studies and Associate
Professor of History at Binghamton University. She has recently published a
monograph about the politics of urban planning in Stalin’s Russia and is now
conducting a study of neighborhood life in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the Soviet period.
She will be teaching a seminar entitled, “Modern Cities; Modern Selves.” More
information about Professor DeHaan can be viewed here.