Архивы russian scientists — Т-инвариант / T-invariant

Ekaterina Zhuravskaya: “Expectations from the sanctions were clearly too high”

One of the winners of the George Gamow Prize this year was Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, a professor at the Paris School of Economics. In an interview with T-invariant, she told how modern economic science works, whether it is possible to evaluate the results of sanctions and what studies of Goebbels' propaganda can tell us about the current military mobilization of Russian society.

…but it is possible to sell authorship. How a Moscow company forges scientific articles and places them in foreign journals

Recently, American scientist Sam Payne received a review of his own article published three years earlier, but now its authors were five employees of Sechenov University. So the world scientific community learnt about the Russian company "International Publisher", which is engaged in the production of fake scientific articles and places them for money in major foreign journals. More details - in the material T-invariant.

Non-free laser on free electrons. How scientists from Russia lost the opportunity to work on a unique facility?

As of 30 November, Russian scientists will no longer have access to the facilities of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. This is not the only scientific instrument to which access has been closed due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. T-invariant takes the example of the European XFEL free electron laser to understand what this means for science and what scientists who have lost access to this state-of-the-art research method are doing.

Dmitry Dubrovsky: “Our classes are an opportunity to be a little free in an already unfree country”

How do universities in exile try to preserve academic freedoms for those who have lost them? Why and at what point does the idea of boycotts of universities begin to contradict academic freedoms? T-invariant spoke to Dmitry Dubrovsky, PhD in History, Professor at the Free University.

Infofield of battle: how and where propagandists are trained in Russian universities today

Since September 1, a number of Russian universities have begun training "information warfare specialists". Such programs were "tested" even before the full-scale invasion, but this year there have been significantly more of them. T-invariant found out which universities have such programs and who will teach students propaganda.

“Hypersonic Horror Continues.” What Physicist Alexander Shiplyuk’s Fifteen-Year Sentence Says

The harsh sentence for the scientist is not an exception to the rule, but the current norm. It was not by chance that the prosecution asked to give Shiplyuk the maximum possible 20 years: the cruelty of the repressions is directly related to the war in Ukraine. Moreover, in the summer of 2023, amendments were made according to which life imprisonment can be given for high treason.

Sociologist Vladimir Zvonovsky: “Those who support Putin cannot really explain his decisions”

This summer, Vladimir Zvonovsky and Alexander Khodykin published a book “Russian Public Opinion in the Conditions of Military Conflict.” T-invariant spoke with Doctor of Sociological Sciences Vladimir Zvonovsky about the results of the study.

Buy an article cheap: which universities order research in dubious scientific journals

RSUH, RUDN, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, MGPPU were among the universities that founded and published journals with violations. "Laboratory of University Transparency" (Lupa) and T-invariant checked government procurement of 100 higher education institutions and found out that some of them conclude contracts with dubious publications.

Academic exchange at the FSB rate. American Physical Society stands up for Russian scientists

The FSB has been persecuting members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Abramov and Oleg Kabov for several years now. Their criminal cases are so unprecedented that the American Physical Society, one of the largest in the scientific world, is worried about their fate. Its representatives are sending letters to the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

Eurasian, imperial, official, millionaire: the story of the new rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities Andrey Loginov

At the end of June, acting Rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities named Andrey Loginov, ex-Deputy Minister of Justice of Russia. This happened against the backdrop of a public scandal around the “Higher Political School” named after Ivan Ilyin, headed by Alexander Dugin, created at the university. T-invariant analyzed Loginov’s biography and found that he has no less importance than Ilyin and Dugin, grounds to claim the title of the main ideologist of the “Russian world”.

“Window to the West”: how will the fate of the last channel of interaction between Russian physicists and CERN be decided?

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and the European Organization for Nuclear Research may sever official relations as early as this week.

Undesirable two years: how the Fulbright program for Russian scientists ends

Even before the war with Ukraine, about 150 young Russian scientists became Fulbright scholarsand got the opportunity to study at American universities. In March of this year, the IIE and Cultural Vistas organizations sponsoring the program were declared undesirable in Russia. T-invariant looked into what awaits fellows in their home countries and what alternatives young scientists see for themselves.

Not everyone is for the king. For the first time in the history of the Russian Academy of Sciences, FSO employees did not allow academicians to attend the General Meeting

Academicians turned to Vladimir Putin with a proposal to head a new body of the Russian Academy of Sciences - the Board of Trustees. But not everyone was able to vote for this decision. FSO employees blacklisted more than twenty scientists and did not allow them to attend the General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

If there was a person, there would be expertise.
Why the Oleg Kabov case could change the fate of Russian science

In Novosibirsk, they are considering the criminal case of corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Oleg Kabov, which was initiated by the FSB. This is the first case in Russia when a scientist is being tried for his allegedly unsatisfactory work, and scientific and technical expertise forms the basic part of the charge. The very fact that you can go to prison for poorly conducted research is a new page both in the history of Russian science and in the history of domestic jurisprudence. Kabov's case is a challenge to the entire scientific community. It will show whether science in Russia can defend its right to exist.

«The world is a cart careening off a mountain and hurtling with acceleration»

Interview with Breakthrough Prize winner Alexander Zamolodchikov about the quantum field theory and how it feels to be involved in a domain that is completely impossible to imagine and understand. We also discussed emigration and how, in the midst of Perestroika, he realized that things would not be good in Russia.

How Dissernet figures advise the Federation Council

University Transparency Laboratory (Lupa), with the help of the free online community Dissernet, analyzed the activities of expert councils of the upper house of the Russian parliament. It turned out that 10% of experts advising senators on the laws they pass have violations of academic ethics.

“In the struggle for a just world, Russian scientists should not be victims of this struggle, but its allies”

What could be the consequences of the break with CERN for Russian high-energy physics? T-invariant's questions were answered by the co-founders of the free online community "Dissernet" - physicists Andrei Rostovtsev and Andrei Zayakin.

“If the reform of Russian science begins in ten years, then there will be no one to return”

The Reforum has published five tasks for the restoration of Russian science, proposed by T-invariant editor-in-chief Olga Orlova.

Political particle accelerator. A neutral flag is being sewn for Russian physicists at CERN

T-invariant has become aware of the reaction of the Ministry of Education and Science and the CERN-Russia Committee to the final decision of CERN to exclude Russia from the list of partners, as well as to stop working with scientists with affiliations in Russian research institutes and universities.

Russian academia in exile

Over the course of two years, several thousand scientists left Russia, sometimes entire teams were evacuated. Some of them managed not only to survive, but to be reborn in a new reality. In February 2024, the Agency for Control and Quality Assurance of Higher Education of Montenegro decided on state accreditation of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (FLASH), which was created by former employees of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences. Teodora Shanin. And this is not the only example of how fugitive Russians are reassembling academic projects.

Special academic operation.
How the FSB has been persecuting scientists who signed a letter against the war with Ukraine for two years in a row

T-invariant opens a series of publications related to the second anniversary of the war with Ukraine. In the first investigation, we tell how the FSB of the Russian Federation launched the largest “case of scientists” in modern Russia, pursuing the signatories of an anti-war letter throughout the country.

Sergei Abramov: “I’m afraid that Russia is shooting itself not in the foot, but in the head”

In 2023, the FSB began subjecting dissenters to punitive psychiatry. Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Abramov left the psychiatric hospital after the examination and became familiar with the updated version of the charges. T-invariant spoke with the scientist about his life with the “extremist” label, his political views and the reasons for the security forces’ attack on the Russian supercomputer industry.

Mikhail Feigelman: “I’m looking for tall poppy who are interested in science, not just an academic career”.

How did the idea come about to build an “island of academic intelligence” using Google Quantum? How to create conditions under which students will pursue science and not a career? Explains the initiator of the PhD program in quantum condensed matter physics QT Future at the University of Ljubljana Mikhail Feigelman.

In memoriam astrologiae. Why do academics continue to bury astrology?

The Russian Academy of Sciences issued a memorandum “On the pseudoscience of astrology.” In dark times, even stating obvious things becomes a struggle for normality and resistance to chaos. We did a kind of backstage, telling some interesting facts about the preparation of the memorandum and the work of the Commission.

They climbed into the nozzle itself. The FSB took on the co-authors of Novosibirsk scientists accused of treason

New detainees in the case of Siberian scientists from the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITPM) named after. Christianovich of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, accused of treason, was scientist Vladislav Galkin from Tomsk. The human rights organization First Department is confident that the repressive campaign is growing and the next victim of the FSB could be absolutely any scientist who has worked on this topic as part of international collaborations.

The supercomputer is captured by the FSB

The Russian Federation's leading specialist in supercomputer systems was first checked by the FSB “for treason”, then kept under house arrest for six months on suspicion of “financing an extremist organization”. After fruitless attempts to plant according to the proven Soviet tradition, the “fool” is used. Sergei Abramov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, founder of a number of innovative companies, is planned to be sent to a psychiatric hospital for three weeks on November 30 for “conducting an inpatient examination.”Because the outpatient motivation of the scientist who organizes the supercomputer forum in Pereslavl-Zalessky, even while under investigation, the FSB could not understand even after eight months.

Igor Efimov: “It will take decades to restore Russian science after Putin…”

How do Russian-speaking scientists work in America today during the war in Ukraine? Why is it important to maintain contact with colleagues from the countries of the former USSR? What awaits Russian science after Putin? We talked about these and other topics with Igor Efimov, professor of biomedical engineering and medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, first president of RASA.

“The state is the parent who beats”, “mobilized and isolated security forces” and “Russia is like a blossoming lotus”

In Chicago, at the annual conference of the Russian-speaking American Scientific Association (RASA), sociologists who have recently been living in the United States chose for their presentations topics that can now hardly be discussed publicly while in Russia. Sergey Erofeev (Rutgers University)presented a brief overview of the most interesting presentations for T-invariant.

News

“We will have to live and work in a world where there are two wars”

In Chicago, at Northwestern University, an annual conference was held, organized by the Russian-American Association of Scientists - Russian American Science Association (RASA). Mutual support, academic solidarity, political context and political division in the scientific community - in report by Denis Cheredov.

And Jupiter is ours, and Europe is ours

The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) "Alabuga", which has already hit the pages of all the world's media this year with a series of high-profile scandals, this time swung at the solar system and acted as a collective Ostap Bender for all the money - namely 491 trillion rubles . Leading Russian astrophysicists responded by recalling the gravitsappa on the Yubileiny satellite (a loud anti-scientific failure of Roscosmos from 2008).

How does a private college operate, whose director was deprived of accreditation for his civic position?

Behind the names in the “Chronicle of the Persecution of Scientists”, which is jointly conducted by T-invariant and CISRUS, there are specific people forced to fight for their civil and academic freedoms. We decided to tell in detail who and why decides to go against government pressure in science and education. The first material focuses on the history of Novokolledzh, one of the largest colleges in Russia.How did the institution begin to work, despite the refusal of accreditation and the resignation of the director, candidate of historical sciences Sergei Chernyshov? Why do the new director Yuri Lobanov and Sergei Chernyshov himself not give up their professional and civic positions? Yulia Chernaya spoke with the former and current leaders of Novocollege - Sergei Chernyshov and Yuri Lobanov.

The raven who saw the dwarfs. Essay on the biography and scientific activity of Alexander Vysotsky

Within the project "Creators" T-invariant together with RASA (Russian-American Science Association) continues to publish a series of biographical essays about people from Russian Empire, who made a significant contribution to world science and technology. The essay is dedicated to astronomer Alexander Vysotsky. He had worked at the observatory of the University of Virginia. There he compiled the first catalogue of red dwarfs and experimentally confirmed the rotation of our Galaxy.

Mikhail Sokolov: «The prism through which people now look at Russia is war»

Sociologist of Science Mikhail Sokolov gives a prediction for T-invariant. What kind of historical experiment is being conducted on scientists left behind in Russia, and why a scandal will erupt when GPT-chat starts re-checking textbooks in Russian.

Donation to «extremists» or «state treason»: FSB long «led» a major academic leader to arrest

Sergey Abramov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has been under house arrest for two months now. He is accused of "financing an extremist organization." Details of the criminal case remain unpublished, but T-Invariant found out that Abramov had previously been investigated under the article of law on "state treason," and the scientist had a security clearance for state secrets.

Hypersound silence. How scientists become the prey of the FSB

Three physicists were arrested in so called "Novosibirsk case". It wasn’t the first time. Previously, four scientists were also accused of treason in different years. All of the scientists accused in all these cases participated in the projects of the seventh framework program of the European Union "TransHyBerian" (coordinator — Von Karman Institute of Hydrodynamics, Belgium). However, the interlocutors and sources of T-invariant suggest that the contacts of scientists with China and Iran are only an excuse, not the reason for the arrests.