CPDSEC

Georgian Technical University Center for professional development, science and culture was established in 2004, after accomplishing listed below international projects:

- 2000 Organization of the NGO “Women in a Changing World” (WiCW),  President of NGO – Ms. Mzia Zhvania, Professor, Head of group of Chemical Neuroanatomy, I. Beritashvili Institute of Physiology, Tbilisi. Vice-President of NGO: - Ms. Lali Gogeliani, Professor, Dean of Hydroengeneering faculty, Georgian Technical University, Tbilisi. Executive director of NGO is Ms. Nadezhda (Nana) Japaridze, PhD, senior researcher in the I.Beritashvili Institute of Physiology. The non-governmental organization (NGO) “WiCW” was founded in Tbilisi, Georgia on July29, 2000. It was started by other women scientists founders (Ms. Mzia Zhvania, Ms. Nadezhda Japaridze, Ms. Irina Chanturishvili, Ms. Manana Dashniani, Ms. Mzia Beqauri, Ms. Tamar Basishvili, Ms. Nino Khikhodze, Ms. Irina Chanturishvili, Ms. Paola Urushadze).The main goals of organization are: 1. To promote women scientists at the local, regional and international levels and facilitate their successful integration into the international scientific community with Georgian and international partners;  2. To work on women studies in Georgian society, i.e. analyze the process of social and psychological adjustment of a women of Georgia in the period of global political and economic changes that are now taking place; to determine her new sphere of social, cultural and economic interests; to define their role in policymaking process of the country.

- 2001 E-WISE, an IWISE network of European and Eurasian Women Scientists & Engineers. This network was started by five IWISE/UNESCO fellows, Ia Zhvania, Georgia, Nataliya Babenko, Ukraine, Masha Dobrotvorskaya, Ukraine, Galina Merkulova, Russia and Svetlana Zhmaylo, Russia, at a meeting with the IWISE co-directors held in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in spring 2001 on behalf of a larger group including Valbona Lako, Albania, Adriana Marica, Romania, Meri Melkonyan, Armenia, and Daniela Pilarska, Bulgaria. The main directions of E-WISE are international information sharing and skill building by and on behalf of women scientists and engineers in eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union. E-Wise core activities include facilitating scientific collaboration, e.g., creation of an archive of electronic resumes, publication of a calendar of events, and eventual creation of an internet scientific journal. Skill-building may include offering electronic courses for women scientists in E-WISE countries, organizing re-training and other continuing education opportunities in collaboration with IWISE, and support for initiatives undertaken by members of the network in their home countries.

-  2002, May – Ia Zhvania, Nana Japaridze, Lali Ghogheliani and Nino Kakauridze organized meeting of IWISE directors Ardith Maney and Mary Ann Evans, accompanied by Ukrainian IWISE colleague, Masha Dobrotvorskaya  with Georgian women scientists and engineers  and the NGO “Women in a Changing World.” at the Institute of Physiology. As a follow-up to these meetings Ia Zhvania, Lali Ghogheliani and Nana Japaridze from Georgian side and Ardith Maney and Mary Ann Evans from American side began cooperating on two projects. One seeks funding for a science information center and the other for a training center for women scientists to be jointly operated by the IWISE, the Georgian Technical University, Women in a Changing World, and other Georgian partners.

- 2002, September IWISE Trainings and Project Development Workshops in Ukraine - In September 2002, IWISE Associate Sharon Drake facilitated trainings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, (Kharkiv Polytechnical University) on (Fundamentals of a Personnel System, Conducting a Needs Assessment and Learning how to Supervise). IWISE co-directors Mary Ann Evans and Ardith Maney also conducted a proposal-writing workshop with Georgian partners Nana Japaridze of Institute of Physiology and Lali Ghogheliani of Georgian Technical University in the Kharkiv Polytech University. Also the IWISE co-directors participated along with Georgian colleagues in a project development workshop in Kharkiv, funded by a grant from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Georgian colleagues were interested in developing a continuing education program for women scientists and engineers in Tbilisi using the model that IWISE developed with colleagues in Kharkiv.

- 2002 November, The establishment of the Sigma Xi-Ge, the American Scientific Research Society Sigma Xi Georgian Chapter, Texas USA.  As the result of IWISE and Sigma Xi (http://www.sigmaxi.org/.) collaboration during 2002 for the developing networks of scientists in other countries, Dr. Christine Piggee of SX’s international office invited two IWISE scientists, Ia Zhvania of the Institute of Physiology of the Georgian Academy of Sciences and Nataliya Babenko of the Institute of Biology at Kharkiv National University in Ukraine to participate in a panel at the SX annual meeting in Texas in November 2002. Through this meeting with SIGMA Xi leaders was decided to establish the Sigma Xi Georgian Chapter: President – Prof. .Ia Zhvania, Vice – President Prof. Lali Ghogheliani, Executive director – Dr. Nana Japaridze. 25 Georgian scientists became members of Sigma Xi-Ge chapter, 10 of them are full and 15 associate members of the American Scientific Research Society Sigma Xi.

- 2002 December, Sigma Xi-Ge chapter received awards through an initiative that Sigma Xi has from the Packard Foundation.

- 2003 The young Georgian scientist Tamar Bolkvadze received a SXi research grant.