On December 21, the Saratov Region Government held an award ceremony for the winners of the Height professional award.

This year, 3 teaching staff members of SSU became the winners of the high award – Dean of the Faculty of Psychology Lyudmila Aksenovskaya, Chair of the Department of Petrochemistry and Technogenic Safety Raisa Kuzmina, and Chair of the Department of Meteorology and Climatology Maxim Chervyakov.

Chair of the Rectors’ Council of Saratov Region, SSU Rector Alexei Chumachenko took part in the solemn ceremony.

Governor Roman Busargin congratulated the winners on receiving the award and thanked the teachers for training in-demand specialists. ‘I am glad that we are completing the Year of Teacher and mentor together with the best teachers of Saratov universities. You are doing a lot to improve the quality of education. You give your students not only theoretical and practical knowledge, but also act as mentors. We are waiting for your graduates at the enterprises of the region and hope that the guys have a desire to develop themselves in their native Saratov Region.’

Every year, the Height award is awarded to the best teachers of higher educational institutions in the region. This year, 21 scientific and pedagogical workers from 7 universities received the award. The amount of the award is 100 thousand roubles.

Lyudmila Aksenovskaya, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, SSU, Chair of the Department of Social Psychology, and Chair of the Saratov Regional Branch of the Russian Psychological Society, is the author of the order concept of organizational culture and sotering technology. The professor is a social psychologist. She has published more than 150 scientific papers and made scientific presentations in different countries of the world. In 2016, she was awarded the title of Honourary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation. She is the owner of four certificates of state registration of software for order methods of diagnostics of organizational culture (the co-author – Senior Lecturer at the Department of Informatics and Programming Anna Kazachkova).

‘It was a great honour for me to be among the best teachers of the city's higher school. The recognition and attentive attitude to our work from the region and the university is very valuable. I think this award is an assessment of the work of the Faculty of Psychology, which turns 15 next year. For more than 50 years, our university has been producing highly sought-after graduate psychologists who work in various fields. Today our work is relevant – psychologists deal with a variety of problems and experiences that people have. This award is an assessment of the importance of our profession. There are no obstacles to reaching your height: it is important not to stop moving forward, and for me this is an obligation to take new steps in the development of my scientific topic, teaching and the Faculty of Psychology,’ Lyudmila Aksenovskaya noted.

Chair of the Department of Petrochemistry and Technogenic Safety, SSU, Raisa Kuzmina has 12 copyright certificates and patents for inventions, is the author of more than 300 scientific papers, 8 teaching aids. Raisa Kuzmina is a member of two dissertation councils on chemical and technical sciences. 11 PhD theses have been defended under her leadership. Her research interests include the study of the composition and direction of oil and gas refining, hydrogenic catalysis of petroleum hydrocarbons and environmental catalysis in the purification of industrial gas atmospheric emissions. For her professional activity, she was awarded the medal For the contribution to the implementation of state policy in education.

Chai of the Department of Meteorology and Climatology, SSU, Maxim Chervyakov is the holder of the badge of the RGS Youth Club of the first degree, the winner of the Success award, a repeated participant in the Arctic Floating University expedition project. He studies the radiation balance of the Earth using satellite monitoring data, has more than 50 scientific publications. He has led research projects (under the RFBR grant, RGS grants), was a scholarship holder of the PHOBOS Environmental Safety Foundation and the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation, the winner of the UMNIK programme. Maxim Chervyakov organises scientific and educational events for schoolchildren in Saratov and the region, where children learn about ecology and geography, the peculiarities of the Arctic the region.

The Height Award has been awarded since 2016. The initiator of the project was Chair of the State Duma of Russia Vyacheslav Volodin.