Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov signed an order on appointing Alexander Wagner the Rector of South Ural State University (National Research University) for the period from April 21, 2023 through April 20, 2028. As a candidate, he was preliminarily unanimously supported by the University Council, and recommended by the SUSU Supervisory Council and the Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Alexey Texler.
What we know about the SUSU Rector Alexander Wagner: biography and interesting facts
Alexander Wagner is a Candidate of Sciences (Mathematics), researcher, member of the Russian Engineering Union, social activist, expert in high energy physics, and alumnus of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo.
He was born on August 1, 1983. In 2006 he graduated from Tomsk Polytechnic University and was awarded the qualification of and engineering physicist. In 2009 he successfully defended his thesis for the degree of a Candidate of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics). And he is also the author of more than 200 scientific papers. Alexander Wagner's Hirsch index (Scopus) is 35.
In June of 2022 he was appointed Acting Rector of SUSU.
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SUSU: priorities of strategic academic leadership
SUSU is a university of transformations, where innovative research is conducted in most of the priority fields of science and technology development. Projects are being implemented in the fields of digital industry, materials science, and ecology. Starting from 2021 SUSU has been participating in the fulfilment of the Priority 2030 Federal Program of Strategic Academic Leadership. The university acts as a regional project office of the World-class Ural Interregional Research and Education Centre (UIREC), which is aimed at solving the tasks of the Science and Universities National Project. SUSU has taken the initiative and is carrying out the key works in designing the inter-university campus of the Chelyabinsk Region.
Alexander Wagner: "SUSU is a complicated mechanism. It reflects the potential of growth and development. If we project the tasks set before our city, region and our country on our university, they will clearly point us towards the fields which the university team should focus their attention and effort. The way I see it is that the main directions of the SUSU development within the Priority 2030 program resonate with the tasks of development of the Chelyabinsk Region. We must meet the challenges of the modern age. And our university sees them as new opportunities for a breakthrough."
Alexander Wagner is actively engaged in the implementation of the program of SUSU development and strategic projects. Under the Rector's leadership, SUSU has achieved significant results in various fields of activity during the 2022-2023 period.
With the support from the Russian Federation Government and under Resolutions No.218 and No.220, the university is successfully fulfilling projects on the creation of high-technology production: "Arctic Bus"; "Environment-friendly Multi-purpose Public Works Vehicles"; and "Modular-packaged transistor units based on multilevel frequency converters".
In 2022 two big-scale projects by the university scientists received grant support from the Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science: "States-of-light Engineering for Quantum Computation and Sensorics", and "Innovations for Air and Water Treatment, and Reducing of the Carbon Footprint". Works within 60 research projects were in the process of implementation, and at the same time, the fulfilment of seven big RSF projects began, and three dozen more of new projects received support.
Today SUSU actively supports the commercialization of scientific developments through the collaboration with big industrial enterprises: URAL Automobile Plant; Kurgandormash plant; UralVagonZavod plant; and others.
SUSU implements the transfer of technologies to industrial enterprises through projects within the Advanced Industrial Technologies and Materials UIREC: engineering and creation of servo-hydraulic drives with hydrostatic guides, jointly with the Ural Engineering Center; creation of import-substituting high-technology manufacturing of polyurethanes, jointly with the Modern Insulation Technologies plant; and more. In 2023 SUSU launched the fulfilment of seven regional research-and-engineering projects within the UIREC's scope of activity.
The vector of development of the SUSU youth policy implies that the university must become a centre of attraction for young people through engaging students in the academic, research, innovative, creative, and sports activities. A system of supporting student initiatives by attracting grants funds is functioning at the university: Education National Project; Presidential Grants Foundation, and so on.
SUSU has opened a Platform for the University Technology Entrepreneurship, an acceleration program, and an entrepreneurial Boiling Point. A student-centred education model is being actively developed, which ensures the training of specialists in-demand in the digital economy sphere. The academic programmes have been updated with consideration to modern fundamental and applied research, as well as to the cross-disciplinary approach.
The SUSU Rector Alexander Wagner stresses that the new prospects for the development of the university's research, academic and entrepreneurial activities are directly related to the demands of enterprises and are aimed at the strengthening of our region's economy, and therefore, at the strengthening of our country's technological sovereignty.