Dear colleagues and friends!
I congratulate you on Professors’ Day!
Today, we honour people who have dedicated their lives to an important mission. Assistants and associate professors, senior teachers and professors, curators and scientific supervisors, deans of faculties and directors of institutes – all of you are mentors of young people, and, therefore, are engaged in the most significant affair on earth. On the birthday of an outstanding teacher, the first Russian academician Mikhail Lomonosov, we once again recall that faithful service to education is the most valuable in our profession.
The Year of Teachers and Mentors has revealed the importance of the role of teaching staff in the life of every person. And if teachers help us choose future professions, then professors make us as professionals, set the vector of development, and let us go into adulthood with the necessary skills and knowledge. University mentors become the main reference points for young people, guides to the world of science. The comprehensive contribution of professors influences not only the minds, but also the characters of the next generations, the future of the country and the world depends on them.
Saratov State University, including the branch in Balashov, employs the 1,390 members of teaching staff. Both young talented teaching staff and great and experienced researchers, who have graduated more than one generation of students. The oldest of them, Olga Sirotinina, has turned 100 this year.
Our teaching staff continue the best traditions of higher education and create new ones. Undoubtedly, each of you has a beneficial influence on the evolution of society, reveals the potential of each student.
I express my sincere gratitude for choosing your professional path by vocation, for your daily work dedicated to the preservation and development of human knowledge in a variety of scientific fields. Thank you for your wisdom, fortitude, sensitivity, and dedication to your favourite work. May the achievements of your students bring you joy and motivate you to conquer new heights in the name of science, education, and prosperity of your alma mater.
Stay healthy, be successful and prosperous!
Rector of Saratov State University
Aleksei Chumachenko
