General Assembly of fellows of the Russian Academy of Sciences took place on December 9 in Moscow. New RAS Professor titles were conferred during the meeting, and one of the scientists to get this honorary title is a researcher from the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences Svetlana Murzina, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Ecological Biochemistry Laboratory at the Institute of Biology KarRC RAS.

RAS Professor is an honorary title awarded to Russian scientists or scientists with Russian citizenship who can boast major scientific achievements and works of great importance for their respective field of science; who actively contribute to fulfilling the tasks and functions of the RAS; who promote the development and facilitate the implementation of research activities in scientific organizations involving graduate and post-graduate students and young scientists; and who participate in training scientific personnel, provide scientific supervision or consulting, and have mentored students who have defended Candidate’s or Doctor’s dissertations. To be eligible, a candidate for the RAS Professor title must be not older than 50 and hold a Doctor of Sciences degree. Also, this title is not awarded to fellows of the Academy, as RAS Professors are young and active scientists on the talent bench for the Academy.

Elections for RAS Professors are held at least once every three years. Candidates are nominated by RAS Academicians and Corresponding Fellows, as well as by the learned councils of scientific organizations. In 2025, 96 vacancies for the title RAS Professor were opened, with only 8 vacancies within the Biological Sciences Division nationwide.

On average, over 6 nominees competed for a position. It’s for the first time that a representative of the Karelian Research Centre RAS has been awarded the honorary RAS Professor title.

Svetlana Murzina is a Doctor of Biological Sciences and Head of the Ecological Biochemistry Laboratory at the Institute of Biology KarRC RAS. She completed her doctoral studies at the KarRC RAS in 2009, earned her Candidate of Sciences degree in 2010, and defended her Doctor of Sciences dissertation in 2019. Svetlana Murzina is the author of nearly 90 scientific publications and has participated in several projects, both Russian and international. Her main research area is aquatic biological resources. Svetlana Murzina has won a competition for RF Presidential grants and has participated in quite a few Russian Science Foundation projects. She was also among the organizers of the All-Russian Conference LIPIDS 2025 held in Petrozavodsk this September.

We congratulate Svetlana Alexandrovna on this success and wish her further scientific achievements!