Physicist Nina Dzhanayeva, recipient of a Vladimir Potanin Foundation scholarship, focuses her research on nanophotonics. In this interview for the HSE Young Scientists project, she discusses nanowells, scientific intuition, and how physics can help in making frangipane cream puffs.

Researchers at HSE University, in collaboration with colleagues from the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN), have developed a method for rapidly determining how firmly a film is bonded to a substrate. This is important for the creation of ultrahigh-frequency acoustic filters, which are key components of next-generation 5G and 6G communications. For the first time, researchers have succeeded in measuring the lateral rigidity of the bond between a two-dimensional material film and a substrate in this way. The study results have been published in Applied Physics Letters.

At the end of July the city of Sagana (Kenya) hosted the World Rafting Cup—the sport’s biggest international competition, drawing competitors from around the world. While it was the debut international tournament for HSE students, they achieved great success, with the Russian crew winning the bronze medal in the Mixed category.

In the 2025/26 academic year, students graduated from 14 joint degree programmes—eight bachelor's and six master's programmes—delivered by HSE University in partnership with other universities across Russia and neighbouring countries at the campuses of those partner institutions. Admissions to these programmes are managed by the partner universities, and graduates receive diplomas from both the partner university and HSE University.

Peking University President Gao Song paid his first visit to HSE University as part of his first overseas trip since taking office in May 2026. The main purpose of the talks was to consolidate existing areas of cooperation and expand joint projects between HSE University and Peking University within the framework of the Cross Years of Russia–China Cooperation in Education (2026–2027).

The first graduation of the Master's in Information Security in the Financial Sector, implemented jointly by the Bank of Russia and HSE University with the organisational involvement of the Bank of Russia University, took place at the HSE Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics. Anton Sergeev, Programme Academic Supervisor, and Andrey Afonin, Director of the Bank of Russia University, awarded diplomas to the graduates.

In June 2026, the HSE Faculty of Computer Science (FCS) completed a course on the use of artificial intelligence in medicine for first-year Paediatrics students at the Russian University of Medicine. The course was delivered with support from a grant awarded to HSE University under the Artificial Intelligence federal project, part of the national project ‘Data Economy and the Digital Transformation of the State.’

A team of Russian researchers, including scientists from HSE University–St Petersburg, has developed the first open multimodal dataset containing recordings of brain activity, heart function, and video observations to help researchers understand what happens in the human brain during deep concentration. In the future, the dataset could accelerate the development of neural interfaces, rehabilitation technologies, and AI systems. The article has been published in Scientific Data.

Fuad Aleskerov, Tenured Professor and Director of the International Centre of Decision Choice and Analysis at HSE University, together with his colleagues, has developed methods of network analysis in bibliometrics that have made it possible to identify patterns in the appearance and citation of publications in academic journals, as well as their influence on each other. When one or a number of studies are frequently cited by a wide range of journals, this is an indicator that the research is of high quality. By contrast, extensive cross-citation within a limited group of journals increases the likelihood of identifying a network of predatory publications.