Lucas Akolzin, from Brazil, is a third-year student of the International Programme 'International Relations and Global Studies.' In his interview with the HSE News Service, he spoke about why he decided to pursue education in international relations, what political leaders inspire him, and how his Russian background encouraged him to study in Moscow.

June 27, 2026, marks three years since the launch of CubeSX-HSE-3, the third research satellite developed by HSE University. Equipped with an AIS system designed for operation in the Arctic, the satellite has completed more than 16,500 orbits of the Earth (covering approximately 720 million kilometres), operated for over 26,000 hours, and transmitted data more than a thousand times. It has captured over 150 images of the Earth, and these figures continue to grow.

Europium is a rare-earth metal responsible for the red glow in displays. For a long time, however, it refused to emit light when surrounded by certain organic molecules known as acylpyrazolone ligands. Chemists have now uncovered the reason: in europium complexes with these ligands, a 'black window' appears—a charge-transfer state in which the energy absorbed by the ligand is dissipated as heat rather than emitted as light. 

On June 19, graduates of the Bachelor's in Computational Social Sciences, launched in 2022, received their at the HSE University's Cultural Centre. All the graduates have completed in-depth training in a social science discipline while developing advanced competencies in data analysis and mathematical modelling.

On June 18, 2026, the laureates of the Award for the Best Human-centred HR Management Practices were honoured at the 26th International Forum HREXPO PRO PEOPLE. HSE University received an award for the creation of daycare playrooms for children of HSE staff and students in the ‘Protection of Life and Well-Being’ category.

In early June, the Science Republic initiative of the Centre for Student Academic Development presented popular science projects at the Science and Ice Cream Festival at VDNKh. HSE University ran an extensive programme of events, from lectures to intellectual games. The events took place at the BIOTECH Museum, Museum of Urban Economy of Moscow, and Smart City pavilions.

HSE researchers examined the careers of 600,000 graduates of Russian secondary vocational education programmes and found that at the start of their careers, the gender wage gap reaches 23%, doubling after three years. This disparity is largely due to male and female students choosing different occupations when enrolling in vocational schools. 

This year, Elizaveta Zorina is completing her Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence Hardware and Software at HSE MIEM. In autumn 2025, she spent six months in China as part of an academic mobility programme. In this interview, she shares her experience of studying at the School of Information Science and Engineering at Shandong University.

A new permanent column, Key to the Text, prepared by the team of the School of Philological Sciences at the HSE Faculty of Humanities, has launched on the Arzamas media platform. The first instalment focuses on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot: the authors explore the evolution of the meaning of the word ‘idiot’ from antiquity to the nineteenth century and its central role in the writer’s conception of the novel.