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What path does one have to follow to become a theoretical mathematician? Is there such a thing as a ‘mathematical personality’? And is it really true that all mathematicians are a bit eccentric? Valery Gritsenko, Professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Head of the International Laboratory for Mirror Symmetry and Automorphic Forms, talks about 13-year-long referee reports and good films about mathematics.

Michael Appiah, from Ghana, is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Laboratory of Intangible-Driven Economy (IDLab) at HSE University–Perm. He recently spoke at the seminar ‘Artificial Intelligence, Digitalization, and Climate Vulnerability: Evidence from Heterogeneous Panel Models’ about his research on ‘the interplay between artificial intelligence, digitalisation, and climate vulnerability.’ Michael told the HSE News Service about the academic journey that led him to HSE University, his early impressions of Perm, and how AI can be utilised to combat climate change.

HSE University, the National Research League of Cardiac Genetics, and the Central State Medical Academy of the Administrative Directorate of the President will hold the Second ‘Genetics and the Heart’ Congress with international participation. The event will take place on February 7–8, 2026, at the HSE University Cultural Centre.

Researchers at the HSE Centre for Language and Brain have developed a tool for assessing text complexity in low-resource languages. The first version supports several of Russia’s minority languages, including Adyghe, Bashkir, Buryat, Tatar, Ossetian, and Udmurt. This is the first tool of its kind designed specifically for these languages, taking into account their unique morphological and lexical features.

Researchers at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have studied how the brain responds to audio deepfakes—realistic fake speech recordings created using AI. The study shows that people tend to trust the current opinion of an authoritative speaker even when new statements contradict the speaker’s previous position. This effect also occurs when the statement conflicts with the listener’s internal attitudes. The research has been published in the journal NeuroImage.

Researchers from the HSE Center for Language and Brain took part in brain surgery on a patient who had been seriously wounded in the SMO. A shell fragment approximately five centimetres long entered through the eye socket, penetrated the cranial cavity, and became lodged in the brain, piercing the temporal lobe responsible for language. Surgeons at the Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital removed the foreign object while the patient remained conscious. During the operation, neurolinguists conducted language tests to ensure that language function was preserved.

The key objectives of the partnership include joint projects in microelectronics and the involvement of company specialists in supervising the research activities of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Plans also focus on the preparation of joint academic publications, the organisation of industrial placements and student internships, and professional development programmes for the company’s specialists.

Scientists at HSE University have found that current AI models, including ChatGPT and Claude, tend to overestimate the rationality of their human opponents—whether first-year undergraduate students or experienced scientists—in strategic thinking games, such as the Keynesian beauty contest. While these models attempt to predict human behaviour, they often end up playing 'too smart' and losing because they assume a higher level of logic in people than is actually present. The study has been published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.