A Dream Comes True on the Shores of Baikal
This August, Syed Muhammad Salman Haider Shamsi, second-year student of the Master’s programme ‘International Business in the Asia-Pacific Region,’ participated in the Baikal Forum on the shore of Lake Baikal. In this article, Salman shares his experience of travelling, experiencing the nature of the Irkutsk region, and sharing knowledge with people from all over the world.
First Caucasus School on Experimental Research and Cognitive Sciences Takes Places in Adygea
On September 17–20, 2025, the First Caucasus School on Experimental Research and Cognitive Sciences took place at the Gornaya Legenda venue of Adyghe State University (ASU). The event was organised by the ASU Experimental Linguistics Laboratory, the HSE Centre for Language and Brain, and the HSE Centre for Sociocultural and Ethnolinguistic Studies. The school brought together over 50 participants—students, doctoral candidates, and early-career researchers from across Russia, along with lecturers and speakers from France, Serbia, China, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
‘I Wanted to Sing, but Was Asked to Organise the Voting System’
The first Intervision song contest recently came to an end in Moscow. The winner was the Vietnamese entrant, Đức Phúc. The voting system for the contest was developed by Fuad Aleskerov, a renowned mathematician, expert in game theory and decision-making, and Distinguished Professor at HSE University. He shared the details with the HSE News Service.
Archival Impulse: Dubna Hosts Summer School Organised by HSE University and JINR
The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna hosted the Archival Impulse Summer School, co-organised by JINR physicists, historians from the HSE Faculty of Humanities, and staff from the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ARAS). This first archival summer school continued the joint initiative of HSE University and JINR to examine and preserve the unique historical legacy of physicists.
HSE Scientists Reveal How Disrupted Brain Connectivity Affects Cognitive and Social Behaviour in Children with Autism
An international team of scientists, including researchers from the HSE Centre for Language and Brain, has for the first time studied the connectivity between the brain's sensorimotor and cognitive control networks in children with autism. Using fMRI data, the researchers found that connections within the cognitive control network (responsible for attention and inhibitory control) are weakened, while connections between this network and the sensorimotor network (responsible for movement and sensory processing) are, by contrast, excessively strong. These features manifest as difficulties in social interaction and behavioural regulation in children. The study has been published in Brain Imaging and Behavior.
‘Himalaya Calling’: Dean of St Petersburg School of Social Sciences Speaks at Global Summit at UPES
Alexander Sorokin, Dean of the School of Social Sciences at HSE University–St Petersburg, was a key speaker at the Himalaya Calling global summit at UPES University in India.
Doing Business with China: Practical Advice for Russian Entrepreneurs
Doing business in China today requires expertise in the specifics of national culture, business ethics, and sanctions risks. HSE's Eastern Perspective continuing education programmes, which feature the involvement of leading experts and businesspeople, provide the knowledge and skills needed to enter and work successfully in the Chinese market. HSE University recently hosted a conference on doing business with China.
HSE University–St Petersburg Expands Partnership with Leading Vietnamese University
HSE University–St Petersburg welcomed a delegation from VNU University of Economics and Business (VNU-UEB). The visit took place in the framework of the year of Russian–Vietnamese relations.
Parion Mission: Hetaera’s Krater, Ancient Urban Technology, and Digital Archaeology
On September 15–16, 2025, the HSE Centre of Classical and Oriental Archaeology at the Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, Faculty of Humanities, held an international conference marking the fifth anniversary of excavations carried out by HSE archaeologists as part of the Parion Mission of Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, at the agora of Parion.
Similar Comprehension, Different Reading: How Native Language Affects Reading in English as a Second Language
Researchers from the MECO international project, including experts from the HSE Centre for Language and Brain, have developed a tool for analysing data on English text reading by native speakers of more than 19 languages. In a large-scale experiment involving over 1,200 people, researchers recorded participants’ eye movements as they silently read the same English texts and then assessed their level of comprehension. The results showed that even when comprehension levels were the same, the reading process—such as gaze fixations, rereading, and word skipping—varied depending on the reader's native language and their English proficiency. The study has been published in Studies in Second Language Acquisition.