Svetlana comes to the Office for Research & Innovation with a combination of extensive research and teaching experience, and a significant background in fine arts.
Svetlana earned her undergraduate degree in Physics from Lomonosov Moscow State University, and her PhD in Experimental High Energy Physics and MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. Her graduate research involved ultra-cold spin-polarized hydrogen targets for use in high energy physics experiments. While a graduate student in dance, an elective anatomy class sparked her interest in neuroscience and lead her to complete two postdoctoral fellowships in experimental neuroscience - first in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan and then in the Pharmacology Department at the University of Washington in Seattle studying molecular mechanisms of exocytosis using electrophysiological, optical and biochemical methods. After joining Towson University in 2015, Svetlana has established research activity in the field of computational neuroscience, drawing on both her physics background and her experimental neuroscience experience.
Her teaching career interlaced with research and included teaching a wide variety of courses from physics of all levels to interdisciplinary and inter-field subjects. Her artistic endeavors culminated in a number of collaborations with theater, dance and music collectives.
As Assistant Vice President, Svetlana is committed to support the development, marketing, and application of Duke's research potential and to assist the research community across Duke’s schools, institutes and centers.
