Gerson Sher

Gerson S. Sher, PhD is a retired foundation executive and civil servant who has devoted his career to the intersection of scientific cooperation, international affairs and global security, primarily with the countries of the former Soviet Union.  He is retired from the National Science Foundation, where he served for twenty years as Program Coordinator for USSR and Eastern Europe. He also worked in several nonprofit organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, George Soros’s International Science Foundation (as Chief Operating Officer), and the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (now CRDF Global), of which he was the Founding President.  Gerson received a B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) in Russian Studies from Yale University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 1975.  His doctoral dissertation, Praxis: Marxist Criticism and Dissent in Socialist Yugoslavia, was published by Indiana University Press in in 1977. He is the author and translator (from Serbo-Croatian) of numerous books and articles.  In June 2008, he received an honorary doctorate from the Moscow Engineering-Physical Institute (MEPhI; now the Russian Federal Nuclear University), Russia’s premier university for educating nuclear scientists and engineers.  The degree was awarded for his career work to promote science and technology cooperation between the United States and Russia.