Times of Crisis and Opportunity is the title of the OECD Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Outlook published in January. The document focuses on STI responses to the pandemic while assessing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on science and technology. Mikhail Gershman, Deputy Director of the Centre of Science, Technology, Innovation and Information Policy, discusses the contribution of the Institute of Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) to the Outlook and discusses some aspects of ISSEK’s long-standing partnership with OECD.
Countries with reserve currencies, sufficient fiscal capacity to implement soft fiscal policies, and access to global capital markets have the best chance of recovering from the coronavirus crisis. The rest may need external assistance. These are the conclusions drawn by Alexei Kireyev, leading IMF economist and visiting professor at HSE University’s School of World Economy.
Middle-class Russians are more likely to reduce spending on the development of their own human capital and prioritize investing in their children instead, particularly when it comes to their children’s education. This is evidenced by a study conducted by the Centre for Studies of Income and Living Standards of HSE University.
43 projects from all over the country were awarded grants in Russia’s Eighth Mega-Grant Competition. HSE University’s application in support of the creation of a world-class laboratory in mathematics was among the winners. The academic supervisor of the new laboratory will be Professor Michael Shapiro of Michigan State University (USA).
Edmond W.H. Lee, a full professor at the Department of Mathematics, Nova Southeastern University, USA, has recently defended his Doctor of Sciences (DSc) thesis at the Dissertation Council in Mathematics, HSE University. The DSc in Russia is a higher doctoral degree that can be earned after the PhD. Professor Lee’s defence was held over Zoom, with the candidate and his dissertation committee members participating remotely from 5 cities in Brazil, Israel, Russia, and the USA. Lee became the first international recipient of a DSc degree in Mathematics from HSE University.
Mathematicians of the Higher School of Economics have calculated the effectiveness of measures taken to fight the coronavirus epidemic in different countries. They have concluded that the scale of anti-epidemic measures does not necessarily directly affect the disease rate, suggesting that one of the main reasons for this is the willingness of citizens to clearly, honestly and consistently comply with anti-epidemic measures.
Eric Maskin spoke at a recent research seminar held by the Centre in which he proposed a modified independence of irrelevant alternatives condition (IIA) and demonstrated that the voting rule satisfies modified IIA, Arrow’s other conditions, and May’s axioms if and only if it is the Borda count, i.e., rank-order voting. Fuad Aleskerov discussed how this affected the collective choice theory, elaborating on various choice models, starting from the Condorcet paradox.
Marking Mikhail Sholokhov's 115th anniversary (1905-1984), linguists Boris Orekhov of the HSE and Natalya Velikanova of the Moscow State University confirmed his authorship of the epic novel about the Don Cossacks. The researchers were able to attribute the novel using the text distance measure proposed by John Burrows. Termed Burrows' Delta, it provides a simple and reliable method of attributing or confirming the authorship of various texts.
Alexander Efimov, a research fellow at the International Laboratory for Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms of HSE University, has been awarded the European Mathematical Society’s prestigious Prize.
Egor Borsuk from the HSE International Centre of Decision Choice and Analysis has developed a software that can resolve international territory disputes. He has tested the programme on the disputed Arctic region. The researcher spoke about his innovation at the 21st April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development and in an interview for IQ.HSE.
In 2018, the HSE International Laboratory of Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms established a new school in Moscow called ‘Hodge Theory: Old and New’ to facilitate cutting-edge research by young and promising mathematicians.
A ‘Mega-Grant’ Competition for ground-breaking research projects funded by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education was held for the seventh time, and this year’s competition winners included two projects that will be based at HSE University campuses. One research group will study dynamic systems at HSE – Nizhny Novgorod, and a new social neurobiology laboratory will begin work at HSE University in Moscow.
Recently the Laboratory of Topological Methods in Dynamics, which is headed by Professor Olga Pochinka on HSE’s Nizhny Novgorod campus, received international status. Professor Pochinka spoke with the HSE News Service about the applied use of research in fundamental mathematics and her grand plans for the future. This interview is the first of a special series on HSE’s international laboratories.
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