Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University

1 • AMONG THE WORLD’S LARGEST GEOGRAPHY FACULTIES MSU faculty • BROAD RANGE OF RESEARCH AREAS AND SPECIALISATIONS • MANIFOLD COURSES ON KEY THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUES of Geography • RESEARCH SUPERVISION BY LEADING ACADEMICS • DIVERSE FIELD STUDIES ACROSS RUSSIA AND THE GLOBE at a glance: • PROVEN QUALITY REFLECTED IN AWARDS AND AFFILIATIONS History The longstanding importance of geographical school of geography at MSU. studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University The Faculty of Geography dates to June 23, 1938. (MSU) is evident in the draft plan for its It initially combined a Geographical Research establishment in 1755. A Department of Physical Institute with Departments of , Geography opened in 1863 as part of the Faculty Physical Geography of Foreign Countries, Physical of Physics and Mathematics. The Faculty of History Geography of the USSR, and Philology added a Department of Geography of the USSR, Economic Geography of Capitalist and Ethnography in 1884. Professor D.N. Anuchin Countries, and . headed this department and founded an influential Structure Professor Nikolay S. Kasimov, a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, serves as president The faculty in numbers of the MSU Faculty of Geography. The dean is Professor Sergey A. Dobroliubov, corresponding • Over 75 years of service to geography member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. • 1,000 undergraduate students and 200 doctoral Today’s faculty consists of 15 departments, eight students enrolled annually laboratories and five remote stations for training • 100 professors, 300 postdoctoral and research. researchers — 800 staff members in all

2 Departments The faculty publishes two peer- reviewed journals: Vestnik Moskovskogo Cartography and Universiteta. Seriya 5. Geografiya Cryolithology and (SCOPUS), since 1946, and Geography, Economic and Social Geography of Russia Environment, Sustainability (in English), Environmental Management since 2010. It also publishes the GeograpH Geography of World Economy gazette, which launched in 2008. and Land MSU is the lead institution on two Landscape Geochemistry and Soil Geography National Councils that coordinate geographical studies in higher education and (for 49 universities) as well as training in Oceanology sustainable development, environmental Physical Geography and Landscape Science sciences and environmental management Recreational Geography and Tourism (for 154 universities). One of the councils’ Social-Economic Geography of Foreign Countries main responsibilities is to develop World Physical Geography and Geoecology nationwide standards for geographical education. The Faculty of Geography’s Laboratories role as coordinator also includes hosting domestic and international organisations Geoecology of the Northern Territories such as the Interuniversity Aerospace Complex Mapping Centre, the Intercollegiate Coordinating Pleistocene Palaeogeography Council on Erosion, Channel and River- Regional Analysis and Mouth Processes, the World Data Centre Renewable Energy Sources for Geography and the Council of Young Snow Avalanches and Debris Flows Scientists. The faculty has affiliate Soil Erosion and Channel Processes programmes in Sevastopol, Astana and World Data Center for Geography Geneva. 3 Education

The MSU Faculty of Geography provides Geographical studies at MSU rigorous education at three main levels: a four- • Research-oriented training year BA, a two-year MA and a three-year PhD. Its • 17 BA and 15 MA degree programmes in most distinctive feature is an expansive range of Geography, Hydrometeorology, Cartography and programmes and departments. Geoinformatics, and Environmental Management, Tourism The academic year at MSU begins in September • Postgraduate programmes and ends in June. At present, all courses are taught • Continuing education in Environmental in Russian. Management, Hydrometeorology, Tourism

BA and MA programmes Focal area BA programme MA programme Geography Physical Geography and Landscape Science Physical Geography and Landscape Science Geomorphology and Palaeogeography Geomorphology and Palaeogeography Glaciology аnd Cryolithology Cryolithology and Glaciology Economic and Social Geography of Russia Economic and Social Geography of Russia Social-Economic Geography Social-Economic Geography of Foreign Countries of Foreign Countries Geography of World Economy Geography of World Economy Recreational Geography and Tourism Hydrometeorology Hydrology Hydrology Meteorology Meteorology Oceanology Oceanology Ecology and Environmental Environmental Geochemistry Environmental Geochemistry Management Ecological Biogeography Environmental biogeography Geoecology and World Physical Geography Geoecology Environmental Management Environmental Management Environment Ecology and Law* Cartography and Cartography and Geoinformatics Cartography and Geoinformatics Geoinformatics Tourism Tourism Tourism * Courses in Moscow and Geneva 4 Remote studies

The number of MSU students based off campus for each region, colour-coded in ascending order, 2014

The Faculty of Geography has five remote Doctoral studies stations for training and research: PhD programmes integrate on- and off-campus • Satino (100 km south of Moscow in Kaluga training in preparation for conducting research Oblast, est. 1968); and writing a dissertation. The Faculty of Geography offers the following areas of focus: • Elbrus (on the slope of Mount Elbrus in the • Physical Geography and Biogeography, Caucasus, est. 1957); Landscape Geochemistry and Soil Geography • Khibiny (at Kola Peninsula in the Khibiny • Economic, Social, Political and Recreational Mountains, est. 1948); Geography • Krasnovidovo (beside Mozhaisk Reservoir on • Geomorphology and Evolutional Geography the Moscow River, est. 1945); • Hydrology, Water Resources, Hydrochemistry • Ustyanskaya (in Arkhangelsk Oblast, est. 1992). • Oceanology Remote stations are fully equipped for fieldwork, • Meteorology, Climatology and Agricultural Meteorology courses and lodging. MSU and • Glaciology and Cryolithology of the Earth affiliates from other institutions use them • Cartography intensively year round. Each site has detailed logs • Geoinformatics of data collected in the vicinity for decades. • Geoecology

5 government, business and scientific collaboration. Over the past few years, MSU geographers Research have registered over 10 patents with commercial potential. In 2011, as part of the “Conservation Many distinguished contributors to the and sustainable development of Russian regions” establishment and development of geography programme, the Faculty launched a geoinformation have worked at MSU. Their work has led to hardware and software system called Geoportal important advances in the following areas: MSU. • regional climate change forecast; In addition to a broad spectrum of geodesic, • hydrological estimates and predictions, meteorological and sampling equipment, the hydro-ecological safety; Faculty of Geography has state-of-the-art • diagnosis and prognosis of extreme natural instruments for laboratory research. Ecology phenomena in seas; and geochemistry facilities are equipped with • monitoring and projecting dynamics of the devices for organic, inorganic and laser particle cryosphere; size analysis. The Faculty also has a Delta-V mass- • evolutionary-geographical methods for spectrometer for isotopic measurement and a evaluating climate change; well-furnished cold room. • geomorphology-engineering analysis; A major state grant covering the period from • geoinformatics, cartographic technology and 2010 to 2014 allowed the faculty to establish ; a Natural Risk Assessment Laboratory headed • assessing the socio-economic and ecological by German oceanographer Peter Koltermann. impacts of National Innovation Projects; In 2014, the faculty received funding to start an • landscape planning, evaluating natural and anthropogenic conditions; • monitoring and estimating biodiversity, Recent international events medical geography; • IGU Regional Conference: Geography, • integral estimation and prognosis of Culture and Society for Our Future Earth, 2015 environmental conditions in Russian cities and • Workshops for the Russian-Swedish project on regions; education for sustainable development, 2008-13 • natural resource management technologies; • Workshop on education for sustainable • recreational engineering service development in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, 2011 The Faculty of Geography actively contributes • The Caspian Region: Environmental to the Federal Target Programme “Research and Consequences of Climate Change, 2010 development of priority areas in Russian science • Russian-Finish workshop on climate and and technology, 2014-2020”. The State Committee environmental change, 2009 on Technology and Innovation recently approved • International Symposium an MSU-initiated platform known as “Technologies on River Sedimentation, 2007 for ecological development” to mobilise 6 Arctic Environment Laboratory responsible for published seven volumes of highlights from leading multidisciplinary research on complex Geography, Society and Environment for the 250th water-land-cryosphere interactions in the Russian anniversary of MSU and produced the four-volume Arctic. monograph Current Global Environmental Change. MSU geographers fulfil research contracts with Faculty members helped complete the National public and private entities in Russia and abroad — Atlas of Russia and the Hydrographic Atlas of the including the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Volume 3, and are now working on the second Geography, the Ministry of Education and Science, edition of the Ecological Atlas of Russia and the the Federal Space Agency, Roscartography, the National Atlas of the Russian Arctic. Ministry of Defence, the Federal Water Resources The Faculty organises at least 10 conferences and Agency, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology symposia on geography and human-environment and Environmental Monitoring, the Federal Agency relations each year at national and international for Sea and Inland Water Transport, the Federal levels. Its International Academic Seminar features Agency for Tourism, Gasprom, Rosneft, the UN luminaries in geography and environmental Office for Project Services and the International sciences from around the world. On 22 April 2015, Atomic Energy Agency. for example, UN Under-Secretary-General and Each year on average, the Faculty publishes 40 UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner visited textbooks, 30 research monographs and 600-700 MSU to present at the seminar. articles in leading academic journals. It recently Resources Applying to the MSU Faculty of Geography Entrance exams: applicant specialisation, Enrolment is contract-based for international philosophy, foreign language (interview) students For additional information on applying to the BA application MSU Faculty of Geography, please contact the General requirements: fluent Russian, tuition fee Department of International Education. Entrance exams: Geography (written evaluation), Email: [email protected] Russian and math (interview) Telephone: +7(495)939 1552 MA application General requirements: fluent Russian, tuition fee To inquire about part-time courses in geography, Entrance exams: Geography (written evaluation) please contact the Department of Continuing PhD application Education. General requirements: MA or equivalent graduate Email: [email protected] degree, tuition fee 7 Lomonosov Moscow State University Faculty of Geography

Reference Edition

Editor in chief: Professor Sergey A. Dobroliubov Editors: Professor Nikolay S. Kasimov, Dr. Sergey R. Chalov, Dr. Sergey A. Sokratov, Dr. Peter C. Sigrist

MSU Faculty of Geography on the web

Official website in English: http://www.eng.geogr.msu.ru/

Official website in Russian: http://www.geogr.msu.ru/

Alumni website: http://www.geograd.ru/

Mailing address: 119991, Russian Federation, Moscow, GSP-1, Leninskie gory, Faculty of Geography Telephone: +7(495)939 2238, +7(495)939 1552 Fax: +7(495)932 8836

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