International Day of Women and Girls in Science

International Day of Women and Girls in Science is celebrated on 11 February. The holiday was established by the UN General Assembly in 2015 to remind of the need to observe the principles of gender equality in the scientific field, to more widely involve gifted girls in choosing a scientific career.

✔ St Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering employs women scientists who study topics relevant to the modern world, offer innovative solutions, and defend their vision of problems.

Larisa Matveeva, Professor at the Department of Technology of Construction Materials and Metrology, is a participant of scientific and scientific and practical conferences, the owner of seven patents for inventions, the author and co-author of more than 170 scientific and educational works. According to Larisa Yuryevna, she is interested in understanding how this or that material, composite, substance is arranged, how to create materials with desired properties. The topics of her research change depending on demand, but the priority is polymeric materials and composites with the participation of polymers. Recently, the main subject of study is gypsum modified with a small amount of polymeric and nanostructuring additives. “I do science because it is exciting and thrilling. After all, it is very interesting to find the solution to another mystery of the structure of matter. This is by and large. And if it’s mundane, then it’s just my job, and I like it!” – says Larisa Matveeva.

Yulia Yankovskaya, head of the Department of Urban Planning, conducts research in the field of the theory of architecture: the structural organization of architectural and urban planning objects and complexes, compositional and artistic problems of architecture, problems of urban planning policy. Yulia Sergeevna has published more than two hundred scientific and educational works, has participated in more than one hundred scientific conferences, was awarded over forty awards, including the silver diploma "Architecture-2002", diplomas of the Interregional Public Organization for the Promotion of Architectural Education (MOOSAO), the Union of Architects of Russia .

“I developed an interest in scientific activity during my school years. Actively participated in scientific researches, conferences, made presentations. As part of my studies at the university, I continued this activity. I wish women researchers to be active, resilient and believe in themselves,” notes Yulia Yankovskaya.

PhD student Daria Repa is conducting research under the guidance of Yulia Yankovskaya. Daria focuses on the topic "Urban planning aspects of the formation of the tourist and recreational space of the region (on the example of the Kaliningrad region)". The PhD student is sure that the Kaliningrad region, as a unique cross-border region with a preserved German heritage, is of great interest for study.

“Combining a special geographical location, a unique natural landscape and the sea coast of the Baltic Sea, the Kaliningrad region creates an attractive tourist image. The historical and cultural objects that have survived here, the architectural monuments of East Prussia, form the space of layering cultures of different periods. However, this natural and historical-architectural resource is used only partially due to the degrading state, low degree of preservation, peripheral location, uneven development and the lack of an integrated model for the development of the entire tourist and recreational space,” says Daria.

✔ The results of Daria Repa's research can contribute to the sustainable development of regional tourism and be used in the development of targeted programs in the Kaliningrad region, as well as be used in further research and in the educational process in the training of architects and urban planners.

Text: Tatiana Petrova
Photo: SPbGASU Information policy division

✔ Learn more about the science research at the university