Verbitskaya
Ludmila Alekseyevna
Rector
of St. Petersburg State University

Ludmila Alekseyevna Verbitskaya was elected Rector and took office in April 1994. She was the first woman rector in the history of St. Petersburg State University. In 1999 she was re-elected for a second term of 5 years. These are years which have heralded dynamic growth and change for St. Petersburg University. She has met many challenges in her efforts to renew the University's foundation of excellence. Due to her initiative and unrelenting activity, two new faculties, never before in existence in the history of the University, were opened: the International Relations Faculty (1994) and the Medical Faculty (1996). Rector Verbitskaya reorganized the University's administrative offices and initiated reforms to provide more support to the faculties and improve working conditions throughout the campuses. She has been active in community outreach efforts, which include expanding the University's Alumni Association, fostering international academic partnerships and involving the local and national business community in the University's development.
Ludmila Verbitskaya was born in the city of Leningrad. She is, herself, a graduate of St. Petersburg University, having received her first degree from Leningrad State University in 1958 in Russian Language and Literature. She defended her post graduate thesis in 1965 and completed her doctorate in 1977 having written her dissertation on "Modern Pronunciation Norms of Russian Language (Research in Experimental Phonetics)."
She started her career at the university as an assistant, became successively a post-graduate student in the Faculty of Philology, Junior Researcher, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor in the Phonetics Department from 1979 and head of the Department of General Linguistics from 1985. She became Vice-Rector for Education in 1984. In May 1986 she was promoted to First Vice-Rector of the University and in 1993, to Acting Rector.
Professor Verbitskaya has authored about 300 research papers and textbooks about linguistics and the Russian language, phonetics, phonology and methodology of teaching Russian. Her research on the problems of contemporary pronunciation became the basis of a new direction in the study of language - "The Norms of Pronunciation and Phonetic Interference".
Questions of cultural norms, stylistic, lexical and semantic aspects of contemporary Russian language play a role not only in her academic research, but also in her work with the Russian Government's Committee on Russian Language. Since 1995 Professor Verbitskaya has been a full member of the Russian Academy of Education, where she has served in a number of positions with national and international academic and educational organizations. She also has a long-standing involvement with the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature; in 2003 she was elected President of the Association. In addition she serves as President of the Russian Organization of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature.
Apart from her participation in associations concerned with Russian language and literature, Professor Verbitskaya has served as President of the St.Petersburg Chapter of the English-speaking Union (founded under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth II).
Rector Verbitskaya is Vice-President of the Russian Union of Rectors. She is also Chairperson of the Presidium of the Council of University Rectors of the North-West Federal District, co-chairperson of the Association of classic universities and President of the Alumni Association of St. Petersburg State University. She works as advisor to the Governor of St.Petersburg on science, education and mass-media, and is a member of the Governor's Committee on Science and Technology and the presidium of the independent organization "Civil Society".
Rector Verbitskaya is Vice-Chairperson the Advisory Commission on Science, Technology and Education to the President of the Russian Federation. She serves on several other federal committees, among them the Russian Government Committee on Russian Language, the judges' panel of the Russian Federation Presidential prize and the Russian Government prize in Education and others. Rector Verbitskaya took an active part in the work of the Russian Government commission she on shaping the doctrine of national education.
In order to promote the Russian higher educational system among international university circles Professor Verbitskaya has been active in the leadership of the European University Association, the International Association of Universities, the World league of Universities and the Association of Baltic Universities, the Eurasian Association of Universities. She has served for many years as Vice-President of the UNESCO commission on Women's Education. She became a member of the Russian Federation Commission for UNESCO in 1997 and of the Coordinating Commission on UN special programmes. As of 2001 she has been a member of the Council of the United Nations University. She is also Vice-President of the Coordinating Committee of the Russian-German Forum "St.Petersburg Dialogue".
L. A. Verbitskaya's talent as a teacher and her work as a leading academic have been recognized by the many awards and honours bestowed upon her. Among them are: the order of Friendship, the order for "National Service" III degree and IV degree, the French "Academic Palm" award with the title of "Commander", the "Knight's Cross for Service of the Republic of Poland", the medal of honour of Saint Grand Duchess Olga III of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ukranian medal of Honour of Grand Duchess Olga III, the title of "Honorary Employee of Higher Education in Russia", the medal "For Merit" in the area of national healthcare. In 1997 Professor Verbitskaya was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, as recommended by the Royal Anniversary Trust , Great Braitain.
Prof.L.A.Verbitskaya is an honorary doctor of a number of Russian and foreign universities: Bologna University (Italy), New York University (USA), St.Petersburg State Technical University, St.Petersburg State medical University, Novgorod State University "Yaroslav Mudry" and others.
She has a planet named after her by the International Astronomy Union. It is planet No7451 - "Verbitskaya".