KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

The Chair of First Aid, Emergency Situations and Civil Defense opened in 1966 and was named Chair of Medical Science and Emergency Situations.

In 1990, it was renamed Chair of Civil Defense and Fundamentals of Medical Studies, in 2000 – Chair of Fundamentals of Medical Studies and Emergencies, and in 2012 - Chair of First Aid, Emergency Situations and Civil Defense.

In 1975-1995, the Chair provided students of Armenian Pedagogical Institute named after Kh. Abovyan certificates of reserve nurses with a major in civil defense.

During the 57 years of its activity, the Chair has been headed by doctors of science and professors: Doctor of Medicine, Professor J.M. Shmavonyan (1966-1982), Doctor of Medicine, Associate Professor M.M. Asatryan (1982-1998), Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences H.M. Grigoryan (2001-2016), Doctor of Medicine, Professor S.V. Grigoryan (2016-2018).

Since 2019, the Chair has been headed by Doctor of Biological Sciences, Associate Professor N. A. Sahakyan.

The Chair addresses a number of issues, including primary health care and organization of civil defense. It also organized a number of events aimed at improving civil defense preparedness, enhancing resilience to natural disasters, improving responses to the threat or occurrence of natural hazards, and boosting disaster risk reduction in emergencies.

The Chair closely cooperates with the Crisis Management State Academy and other agencies.

Ever since it was founded, the Chair has been organizing professional courses in all faculties, emphasizing the role of medical science and civil defense in the formation of teachers’ competencies.

In 2016, the Chair of Human and Animal Physiology (Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geography) was merged with the Chair of First Aid, Emergency Situations and Civil Defense. As a result of the merger, the Chair carries out its activity in the following directions: first aid, emergency situations, civil defense, human and animal physiology.

The basis of the scientific and research activity of the Chair is human and animal physiology. The scientific directions are neurophysiology, electrophysiology and psychophysiology. In this direction, the Chair carries out applied research to study the physiological and psychophysiological problems of students' and pupils’ attention, memory processes and mental performance in diverse academic workloads.

Stressology is another key scientific direction of the Chair, in particular. It studies the mechanisms of identifying the neurodynamic characteristics of psycho-emotional and informational stresses. In this direction, the Chair cooperates with Orbeli Institute of Physiology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

One Doctor of Science, one professor and five associate professors work in the Chair.

The lecturers of the Chair are authors of monographs, educational manuals, textbooks, methodological guidelines and scientific articles.

The specialists of the Chair regularly participate in various international conferences, online seminars, webinars and professional discussions.