Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 5, 1990 TAG: 9006050286
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRITZ RITSCH SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Vladimir Kurilov, president of Far-Eastern State University in Vladivostok, bombarded Tech aquaculture professor Lou Helfrich with questions about job placement for graduates.
"They have no difficulty finding jobs?" Kurilov asked through interpreter Victoria Schur, who teaches English at Far-Eastern State.
After inquiring diligently about what sort of job opportunities exist for aquaculture majors, Kurilov attempted to exchange business cards with his hosts and realized he had no more. Schur laughed and apologized.
"Unfortunately, he didn't have any more business cards after all this," she said. "All this" was a whirlwind tour of Virginia's colleges and research facilities arranged by the Virginia Department of World Trade.
Through his interpreter, Kurilov emphasized that he was impressed with "how skillful and efficient the American people are."
One thing he has learned on his tour of Virginia research institutions is that if a researcher "gets money, it makes work more efficient" and leads to better results.
The goal of his university, he said, is to "prepare good research specialists" for the "prosperity and development of our economy" under Gorbachev. Kurilov, accompanied by Schur and Alexander Korobeev, dean of faculty at Far-Eastern's Law College, will visit a Roanoke law firm today and conclude the week at Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason universities.
Kurilov, an admirer of Thomas Jefferson, hopes his tour of Virginia will help Vladivostok and Far-Eastern State prepare for a free market economy.
Monday morning, the visitors toured Tech's computer facilities and aquaculture research center with Tech faculty and administrators. The Soviets expressed polite interest in the computer system, but they were easily distracted. At one point Korobeev took a reporter aside to inquire humorously and in broken English about the Tech "Gobbler" logo hanging in the computer center.
The academicians became far more animated in the aquaculture laboratory, apparently because Far- Eastern has a biological school. The Soviet university also has two biological stations for aquacultural research. But the two schools, Kurilov said, have "similar problems."
Kurilov, 42, and his two associates arrived in Virginia last week and have already toured the Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon, the University of Richmond, The College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia.
Last weekend they attended Harborfest in Norfolk. Kurilov sees similarities between Norfolk and Vladivostok, home of the Soviet submarine fleet. Unlike Norfolk, however, Vladivostok has only recently been opened to commercial trade.
In a news conference following these visits, Kurilov said , "we have the same direction of development" in computer research.
Far-Eastern State has an exchange program with Washington State University. Kurilov said he hopes to make the same arrangement with Tech to encourage "cooperation" and "joint research."
by CNB