WPI Community Aims to Support Ukraine, Affected Students and Scholars

Beyond our campus, meeting local needs for global impact 

“As a university that prides itself on meeting real-world global challenges, I can think of nothing more relevant that taking a stand here and doing the work to help,” said Renata Konrad, associate professor of operations and industrial engineering.

For Konrad, who recently returned from Ukraine as a Fulbright Scholar, having exchanged offices and homes with an assistant professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University, that work is multi-faceted and includes working with WPI students to assist with NGO operations in the Boston area and in Ukraine, raising money and organizing donations of medical supplies, and coordinating project advising for students in Ukraine.  

“It feels very personal,” said Nancy Burnham, physics professor and director of the Switzerland Project Center. Burnham is among faculty advocating to open job and fellowship opportunities to scholars impacted by the war. Her commitment to action is shared by Lyubov Titova, associate professor in physics who envisions global fellowships for refugees. “A master’s from WPI would be a game changer,” she said. 

Bogdan Vernescu, vice provost for research and co-director of the Bucharest, Romania Project Center, is working with Provost Wole Soboyejo to identify fellowship and position opportunities for refugee scholars. And WPI is part of a growing worldwide science community effort, currently more than 2,000 labs, to host Ukrainian scientists.

And it might not get more personal than it has for Dmitry Korkin, Harold L. Jurist ’61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean’s Professor and director of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program, who’s opened his home to the family of a Ukrainian economist colleague. As reported on GBH News and PRX’s The World, it’s an effort that “echoes the rescue of European scholars during World War II.”  Korkin’s lab is also one of those open to host Ukrainian scientists. 

Both Korkin and Titova are signatories on an open letter by Russian-speaking scientists supporting Ukrainian, Russian, and Belorussian scientists affected by the war.

Community members had a chance to learn more about the war in Ukraine during a panel sponsored by International House, The Global School, and the Department of Humanities & Arts (HUA) earlier this month. Moderated by John Sanbonmatsu, HUA associate professor, and featuring speakers from Clark University and Columbia University, the panel was recorded and can be viewed here.

As the community is called to action on Ukraine, there is recognition and a resurgence of interest on ways to help those impacted in other conflicts, including Afghanistan and Syria—as well as a commitment to continue to preserve and foster educational and personal connection with Russian students and scholars.