People of ICEF
As told by one of the original ICEF team members, Oleg Zamkov, ICEF Deputy Director and Academic Head of HSE and University of London Double Degree Programme in Economics, the success of ICEF was in choosing the right moment for the start and finding the right people, both academics and administrators. It would also be unimaginable without the advice and support from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), especially Richard Layard, who helped design several key elements of the curriculum for double degree programme, Richard Jackman and Amos Witztum who made a significant contribution to ICEF idea implementation.
Today, ICEF is proud to be academic home to over 20 international researchers with PhD degrees in economics, finance and social sciences, representing different countries and continents: Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Ukraine, Argentina, Australia, and India. ICEF faculty members share their stories of joining the team for The HSE Look readers.
Emiliano Catonini, Assistant Professor:
When I applied to ICEF, I was interviewed first at the conference which both I and ICEF colleagues attended, and I got invited for a presentation of my research and lecture to Moscow. I saw that ICEF was a good place to work at because they really invested the time and effort in understanding my work, which can be very technical at times and even though they work in a different area of economics and finance. This spoke to me of a good and lively research environment which strives towards excellence, and this impression came to be true. I teach two courses that I like, namely Game Theory for ICEF Bachelor programme and an Advanced Microeconomics course for Masters’.
Udara Peiris, Tenured Associate Professor:
Given that I had the privilege to teach very motivated and brilliant students at Oxford, I was looking for a similar environment with students who have the potential to be world leaders in whatever they do. My PhD advisor, Prof Dimitrios Tsomocos, is a long-time friend of ICEF, and I had come across several ICEF graduates in the UK, so I knew how strong they were. It was very important for me because I did not want to be in a place where I had to simplify what I taught but wanted to be in a place where students would be pushing me to learn more and be at the cutting edge. I think that leadership of HSE and ICEF has a great strategy for making them a premier research institution, and it gives me a lot of confidence in the research potential of ICEF. I feel that this environment will support and encourage me to pursue my research interests and ultimately grow with the university, and, in turn, help it grow.
Kosmas Marinakis, Assistant Professor:
ICEF is a very good part of HSE, which is a good university – it has goals, it has people who look ahead and try to make the university better. I am glad to play my part in promoting ICEF and HSE through research, thus contributing to its advancement. I like that we are an active group of researchers, and we have a very good research climate, and ICEF cares about the results and actively tries to help us. I was lucky to have mentors from top European universities which were brought to ICEF and who help us improve on both teaching and research. I would say that it is difficult to find better students than the ones at ICEF. I’ve taught in top universities in the U.S. and Europe, but ICEF students are amazing. One would have to teach at Harvard or similar level institutions to get a comparable level of students.
Alexei Boulatov, Tenured Full Professor:
First of all, I liked the spirit and atmosphere, as ICEF has a diverse team of enthusiastic people. The endorsement of ICEF by London School of Economics was quite important for me, too, and I think for many it matters a lot.
The idea of ICEF was to create an institution that fits the best international standards of education in Economics both in terms of curriculum and procedures, and academic governance structures are crucial for developing such a project. It was very important to me that ICEF has been cultivating such academic self-governance.
Read more articles about ICEF in The HSE Look July 2017 issue.