Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies

Arctic Research Coordination Network: Building a Research Network for Promoting Arctic Urban Sustainability

Participant Bios

Robert Orttung

Associate Research Professor of International Affairs
Assistant Director, Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies

Robert Orttung is president of the Resource Security Institute, Assistant Director of the Institue for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, and a visiting scholar at the Center for Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Orttung is a co-editor of the Russian Analytical Digest and the Caucasus Analytical Digest, bi-weekly electronic newsletters that examine political and economic developments in their respective regions. Previously he worked at the Jefferson Institute, American University's Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, the EastWest Institute, and the Open Media Research Institute. He earned a PhD in Political Science from UCLA and a BA from Stanford University.

Nikolay Shiklomanov

Assistant Professor of Geography at the George Washington University

Dr. Nikolay Shiklomanov is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the George Washington University. He earned a PhD in Climatology from the University of Delaware, a MS in Physics from St Petersburg University, and a MA in Geography from SUNY Albany. Dr. Nikolay Shiklomanov's areas of expertise are in climate variability and change and the Arctic environment. He is currently working on a grant from the National Science Foundation for long-term observations on the climate-active layer-permafrost system.

Dmitry Streletskiy

Research Scientist at the George Washington University

Dr. Dmitry Streletsky is a post-doctoral scientist. His research interests include cold region climates, permafrost and human-environment interactions in the Arctic. He is originally from Moscow, Russia where he completed his BS and MS in Geography from Moscow State University working on snow cover, glaciers and permafrost. Dr Streletskiy recently obtained his PhD in Climatology from the University of Delaware.

Marlene Laruelle

Research Professor of International Affairs at the George Washington University

Marlene Laruelle is a Research Professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. She is the Director of the Central Asia Program at IERES and a member of PONARS (Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia). Laurelle is a Researcher at EUCAM (Europe-Central Asia Monitoring) in Brussels and an Associate Researcher at Fundacion para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Dialogo Exterior (FRIDE) in Madrid. She recieved her PhD from the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures.

Timothy Heleniak

Director at the American Geographical Society

Timothy Heleniak is the director at the American Geographical Society. He currently is the Editor of the journal Polar Geography. He is a human geographer with regional expertise in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union and the Arctic. Dr. Timothy Heleniak was a Research Associate at the University of Maryland. He has worked with the World Bank, the United Nations Childern's Fund, and the US Census Bureau. While at the World Bank, Heleniak was involved with the Northern Restructuring Project which is designed to assist the Russian government with out-migration and restructuring selected regions in Siberia. He received his PhD in Geography from the University of Maryland.

Alexander Pelyasov

Director, Center of Northern and Arctic Economies, Russia

Alexander Pelyasov is the director for the Center for the North and Arctic economy, Council for the Study of Productive Forces, and Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and Russian Academy of Sciences.

Elana Wilson Rowe

Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor at the University of Nordland, Norway. She is the editor of Russia and the North (2009) and co-editor of The Multilateral Dimension in Russian Foreign Policy (2009, with Stina Torjesen). She is researching factors shaping Russian climate change policy and the connection between international assessment processes and Russian domestic decision-making. She received her PhD in Human Geography from the University of Cambridge.

Dr Aileen A. Espiritu

Director of the Barents Institute

Dr Aileen A. Espiritu is the Director of the Barents Institute effective since 1st March 2010. Aileen has the overall responsibility for the Institute's academic as well as the administrative operations, focusing on the cross-border research and studies, transnational relations, Northern politics, and regional development.

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