Researchers from Ural Federal University have taken first and third places in the international Top1000 Scholar 2026 ranking by the Scholarly Index platform. Kazi Sohag, Head of UrFU Laboratory of Economic Policy and Natural Resources, has been named the world's leading researcher in the field of agricultural, environmental, and natural resource economics for 2021–2025.
"It is extremely gratifying that the research we conduct with colleagues is noticed at the international level. This ranking is one of the confirmations of the significance and authority of our contribution to global science, and an additional qualitative assessment of the level of our work," explained Kazi Sohag.
Kazi Sohag specializes in energy and environmental economics, financial economics, income inequality, the labor market, and economic growth. In particular, he studies global energy transition processes, the improvement of Russia's mineral resource base amid geopolitical tensions, and other related issues.
He is also an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Management at St. Petersburg State University, a former visiting researcher at the University of Southern Queensland Business School (Australia), an associate researcher at the Institute of Accounting Research at the University of Management in Malaysia, and a researcher at the Center of Excellence in Renewable Energy and Energy Systems at King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia).
According to RePEc, Kazi Sohag is among the world's top 100 young economists and ranks second among economists in Russia by number of publications over the past ten years. His Hirsch index is 39, with total citations exceeding 3,600.
Third place in the same field went to Monirul Islam, a researcher at UrFU Laboratory of International and Regional Economics, who in 2025 was named among the world's top ten young economists by RePEc. Monirul Islam works in modelling and actively publishes in leading international academic journals. Using economic models, he assesses the impact of the global energy transition and geopolitical risks on international trade in mineral resources. His current Hirsch index is 23.
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The Top1000 Scholar ranking takes into account factors such as citation counts, the significance of publications, contribution to scientific leadership, and research productivity (industry D-index, citation impact excluding self-citations, Hirsch index excluding self-citations, and stable publication activity).
The Top1000 Scholar platform's database covers the work of 2.31 million scientists across 20 broad disciplines and 4,516 highly specialized research topics.
Anastasia Pyankova
The registration period for young people from abroad to take part in the online intellectual competitions of the Open Doors: Russian Scholarship Project has reached the halfway point. Winners and runners-up of the Olympiad will be entitled to free education under the quota for foreign nationals in the Russian Federation, and will also be eligible to apply for grant support from the Government of the Russian Federation.
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This number of participants was reached in less than a month after registration opened. Registration will close on November 1.
The webinars will help Olympiad participants assess how well a particular university or academic program aligns with their goals, interests, and academic background.
