Blair Ruble is the Vice President for Programs at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and Director of the Center’s Urban Sustainability Laboratory.  Previously, he served as the Director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies (1989-2012) as well as of the Center’s Comparative Urban Studies Program (1992-2014), and was Director of the its Program on Global Sustainability and Resilience (2012-2014).

A native of New York, Dr. Ruble worked at the Social Science Research Council in New York City, as well as at the National Council for Soviet and East European Research in Washington before coming to the Woodrow Wilson Center.  He received his MA and PhD degrees in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and an AB degree with Highest Honors in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has lectured widely and has been a scholar/lecturer-in-residence at the Juridical Faculty of Leningrad State University, the Soviet Academy of Sciences), the Laboratoire de Geographie at the University of Paris-X (Nanterre), the Law Faculty of Kyoto University, and the Academia di architettura at the Università della Svizzera italiana (Mendrisio).