Who would have thought a local university in Armenia would cross paths with an analytical chemist and researcher from Sweden?
Throughout its more than 30 years of existence, AUA has had 4 presidents. After Dr. Armen Der Kiureghian, the founder and the third president of AUA, announced his retirement in 2019, the Board of Trustees and the administration had a mission of finding a new president whose views and goals would align with those of the institution.
At the same time, Dr. Karin Markides, after serving as the president of the Chalmers University of Technology for nine years, was looking for an institution where she could utilize her ideas and turn them into reality.
Dr. Markides believes that universities and knowledge are global. She initially started her career in education as a professor, doing research in Sweden, Brigham Young University in Utah and Stanford. But, much to everyone’s surprise, she decided to do something else in the field. “I was frustrated that universities were too isolated from society,” Dr. Markides says. “I wanted to learn more about it.”
While she and her team have made a lot of progress in Sweden, it would only be possible to use the exact same tactics for other countries. So Markides started to wonder whether she could “identify some generic components that one could actually insert and help support universities in other parts of the world.” This way, universities can be global and make a difference in the world.
With this vision in mind, on July 4, 2019, President Karin Markides started her journey at AUA, “which is very symbolic” as it is the independence day of the United States.
AUA and its mission attracted Dr. Markides immediately. When she joined the university, she adjusted the mission for herself and made sustainability a part of it. To her, sustainability means “leaving nobody out.”
Dr. Markides’s main work is concentrated in the provinces of Armenia and is located outside of the classroom — aimed at society. Some of those projects are Reality Labs, three currently in development, and AUA Extension programs. “The knowledge we have in people, the interest we have in provinces, we should take advantage of that,” Markides says. “We should see how we could make it so that there is also a good and prosperous possibility to live in different parts of the country.”
Another goal that Dr. Markides has set for her presidency is to make the world know about Armenia. When going back to Europe, people would always ask her questions about the country; everyone was so curious. “If we want to be prosperous and make a difference, we need to find a way to tell people about ourselves,” Dr. Markides says.
What often affects the president’s confidence is being foreign to Armenia. While she brings a fresh perspective to the educational scene here, she sometimes thinks she is “too Swedish for this place.” She says, “At least I am aware that I am different.”
If Dr. Markides is not spending her hours on the fifth floor of the main building, working in her office, she engages with her hobbies. She likes to think. “You have much more control over your mind than you actually think,” Dr. Markides says. Another way of achieving a clean mind is painting. When painting, “the whole world disappears.”
Dr. Markides has her vision for AUA and has to bring many plans to life. While doing so, she always keeps in mind the prosperity of Armenia and the students here. “I feel that the next generation here can actually make wonders,” she says.
