Harley D. Balzer

Harley Balzer retired in July 2016 after 33 years in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown. University. He was Founding Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies. Prior to coming to Georgetown he taught at Grinnell College and Boston University, and held post-doctoral fellowships at Harvard's Russian Research Center and the MIT Program in Science, Technology and Society. In 1982-83 he was a Congressional Fellow in the office of Congressman Lee Hamilton. In the early 1990s he was Executive Director of George Soros’ International Science Foundation, and continues to work with programs to assist Russian Education.

His publications include Soviet Science on the Edge of Reform (1989); Five Years That Shook the World: Gorbachev's Unfinished Revolution (1991), which was named a CHOICE outstanding academic book; and Russia's Missing Middle Class: The Professions in Russian History (1996).