How Do NSU Students Become PhD Candidates?

In 2018, NSU was authorized to award higher academic degrees without Higher Attestation Commission control over the process. Since then, NSU has established dissertation councils in the earth sciences, technical, chemical, mathematical, physical, and economic sciences. Seven postgraduate students have received Candidate of Science degrees. 

Anton Arefiev became the first official Novosibirsk State University Candidate of Sciences. He defended his thesis for an advanced degree in the geological and mineralogical sciences in 2020. A graduate of the NSU Department of Geology and Geophysics, his research is devoted to phase relationships in potassium carbonate and carbonate-alumino silicate systems at 3 and 6 GPa. 

Elizaveta Gaivoronskaya is the first and, so far, only NSU Department of Economics graduate to be awarded a Candidate of Economic Sciences degree at the University. Her dissertation was devoted to modeling demand in the electricity market.  She believes there are a number of advantages to getting a Candidate’s degree at NSU. These include the higher requirements for work and reviewers and you are not required to write a substantial text and abstract. 

In March the NSU dissertation council in physical sciences decided to award two students of NSU Department of Physics Arnab Chaudhuri и Singh Rajnish Shakya the degree of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Young scientists became the first to defend their theses in physics successfully.

Bao Vuong Huu became the first PhD Candidate in physical and mathematical sciences, who defended his thesis at NSU in March. NSU Department of Mathematics and Mechanics graduate from Vietnam introduced to the examining committee his thesis devoted to study geometry and topology of three dimensional manifolds. 

Bao explained,

Three dimensional polyhedra can be considered as CW-complex structure for some certain manifolds. From identifications of faces of polyhedra one can get an abundant amount of manifolds. The number of (at least not obviously homeomorphic) three-manifolds grows very quickly with the complexity of the description. For an icosahedron, the figure is about 40 billion! So we can study the geometric structure on manifolds this way. Geometric knot theory is closely related to the topic because geometric invariant is a very sensitive invariant for knots.

PhD Candidate admitted he is not excited because of the completion of student life. But he is filled with gratitude. In Bao`s opinion, we often do not take this time into account and see it as something given but not obtained. 

Scientist added,

I am thankful for each person, come along the way with me through thick and thin, supported me when I was down, trusted me and gave me love and courage. It would be a long list if I write down everyone I should say thank you over the years from the very beginning. I continue my way, appreciate every day, each moment of my life, that is given constantly.

Earlier we talked about women in science. You can read stories of five NSU graduate students and professors about significant results they have achieved in their careers as scientists, and what they plan to do in the next few years.