News

Researchers from the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences have proposed a mathematical model that describes the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking into account the restrictions applied in different countries. The model will help governments make reasonable and timely decisions on introducing or lifting restrictions. The paper was published in Eurasian Economic Review.

In the recently published US News Best Global Universities rankings, HSE University now appears in six subject rankings—an increase from four in 2020. The two latest additions are in Arts and Humanities (ranked 207^th) and Psychiatry/Psychology (ranked 374^th). The university once again placed highly in Mathematics (85^th), maintaining its position among the top 100 universities worldwide in the subject and ranking second among Russian institutions.

HSE University Rector Nikita Anisimov, along with the heads of many other leading Russian universities and tech companies signed the National Code of Ethics in the field of Artificial Intelligence. HSE University experts took part in the development of this document. The presentation of the code and the signing ceremony took place at the first International Forum on "Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: the Beginning of Trust".

A unique awake brain surgery has been carried out in Nizhny Novgorod with the participation of staff of the Centre for Language and Brain Studies. For the first time, neurolinguists in Nizhny Novgorod assisted in the removal of a brain tumour with mapping of a bilingual patient who is a native speaker of Tatar and Russian. The participants—Natalia Gronskaya, Director of the Centre for Language and Brain Studies, Alina Minnigulova, research assistant, and Lilia Mavlekhanova, invited expert and native speaker of Tatar—spoke about the specifics of the operation.

In October, HSE University held the 10th Conference of Civil Society Researchers, organized by the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Nonprofit Sector. The main topic of this anniversary forum was ‘The impact of the crisis on the development of the nonprofit sector and citizen self-organization in Russia: New realities and prospects’. The conference was co-organized by the Association "European University for Volunteering" (EUV) and the United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV), a long-time partner of the centre.

Fashion Theory journal Editor-in-Chief Liudmila Alyabieva explains how the pandemic has changed our wardrobe as well as expectations of the fashion industry — and ourselves.

In October, a two-day seminar entitled ‘Ageing and frailty in Norway and Russia’ was held by HSE University’s International Laboratory for Population and Health.  In addition to purely demographic results concerning the changing age structure of the population and growing life expectancy, most presentations were devoted to the comparative assessment of physical and cognitive status among elderly people, cardiovascular aging, as well as social and medical support for the elderly. We spoke with the organizers and participants of the seminar about their research findings and the implications for society and public health.

What are the outcomes of growing inequality? How much inequality is there in Russian healthcare and education? What does Russian society think about inequality? (Spoiler: that it’s excessively high and unfair.) These questions and many others were discussed by Russian and French researchers at the conference ‘Socio-economic Inequality and Poverty in the Modern World: Measures, Dynamics, and Prospects in an Age of Uncertainty’.