2025 RASA Conference
Dear colleagues and friends!
The 16th International RASA Conference will take place on November 15–16, 2025, at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, located on the Voorhees Mall of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This venue holds deep intellectual and cultural significance for the meeting, as the museum’s collection includes over 60,000 works—featuring Russian and Soviet Nonconformist Art from the renowned Dodge Collection, American art from the eighteenth century to the present.
Continuing RASA’s tradition of dedicating each conference to a notable Russian-speaking scientist from the past, the 2025 Conference will honor Sofya Kovalevskaya on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of her birth. Kovalevskaya (1850–1891) was a trailblazing Russian mathematician—the first woman in the world to earn a doctorate in mathematics, the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe, and one of the first women to serve as an editor of a scientific journal. The opening session will feature a special lecture celebrating her life and contributions to science and humanity.
In line with RASA’s tradition, the disciplinary sessions will feature distinguished scientists from various fields:
- The mathematics session will be dedicated to Israel Gelfand (1913–2009), a prominent Soviet and American mathematician regarded as one of the greatest of the 20th century. Gelfand made foundational contributions to group theory, representation theory, functional analysis, and other areas. Notably, he worked at Rutgers University, the venue of the 2025 RASA meeting.
- The biology and health session will highlight Lina Stern (1875/1878–1968), a Russian and European biologist renowned for her pioneering research on the blood–brain barrier, which she described as the hemato-encephalic barrier in 1921.
- The physics session will honor Vladimir Zakharov, a brilliant Soviet and American physicist and one of the founding members and active participants of American RASA. We plan to feature lectures by Professor Zakharov’s students and former colleagues, and also remember the poetry that Vladimir Evgenievich wrote throughout his lifetime.
A special session on the History of Sciences will explore key themes centered on Russian and Soviet scientists of the twentieth century. Its goal is to showcase their contributions and foster mutual understanding within the scientific community, engaging researchers across disciplines and generations. Chaired by Maria Mayofis, Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian at Amherst College, this session aims to stimulate dialogue and challenge existing perceptions of contemporary Russian science—both within the diaspora and the broader American academic environment.
A central feature of the 2025 RASA Conference will be the roundtable on “Challenges for the Future and Possible Responses,” bringing together prominent scholars from various disciplines, including Oleg Itskhoki (economics), Yulia Sineokaya (philosophy), Igor Efimov (health sciences), and Vadim Gladyshev (life sciences). Moderated by Alexander Kabanov (chemistry), the discussion will focus on how society might adapt to rapid technological advancements (including AI), climate change, geopolitical tensions, and social transformation in an evolving global landscape.
We warmly encourage you to participate and register for the meeting. Registration is open and free. You can register here: The 2025 RASA Conference will be chaired by Dr. Sergey Erofeev, Ph.D., RASA President and distinguished scholar in sociology and political science, currently an adjunct professor at Rutgers University. Tatiana Tatarinova, the Jones Endowed Chair in Computational Biology, will serve as program co-chair.
Looking forward to a great meeting!
Respectfully,
Organizing Committee
Conference program
Poster Session
Registration
The participants of the conference need to register using this link and indicate their preference for remote or in person attendance. The Zoom link will be sent to participants.
Venue
Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
71 Hamilton Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1248
Hotel Accommodations
If you are a Speaker, please contact Tatiana via email at rasa.tsg16@gmail.com regarding the hotel reservations.
If you are an attendee, please book your hotel.
Recommended Hotels:
Hyatt Regency New Brunswick
2 Albany Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA
hyattregencynewbrunswick.com
The Heldrich
10 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
www.theheldrich.com
(The Heldrich hotel discount code is “rutgers”)
RASA 2025 Travel Grants
RASA will award two grants of up to $1,000 each to subsidize conference expenses (travel, lodging, etc.) for U.S.-based junior scholars and graduate students in the fields of math, physics, chemistry, biology, and other natural sciences. Applicants do not have to be current members of the association.
Apply here.