Prof Konstantin Severinov, who spearheads Skoltech’s biomedicine initiative, receives the 2015 Scopus award.

At a ceremony held at the Skolkovo Innovation Center in Moscow, Severinov was awarded for his contribution to the development of science in Russia and around the world. He is the first Skoltech scientist to be bestowed with the honor.

The Scopus Award program is organized annually by Elsevier Publishing, a leading provider of scientific information. It was first introduced in Russia in 2005 with the aim of supporting scientific research and honoring the country’s outstanding scientists.

Severinov, a biomedicine researcher whose work focuses on RNA transcription, bacteriophage development and interaction with bacterial hosts and structure-activity analysis of peptide antibiotics, commented on the award’s significance: “Getting an award is undoubtedly a pleasant experience, it is like candy to a baby.

“It symbolizes objective, metrics-based science, which is, alas, sometimes abused and maligned in the Russian scientific community these days. However, at the end of the day, stimulating high quality international scientific publications by Russian scientists is the only way to integrate Russian science with mainstream international science.

“Knowing that this prize was previously given to no others that Academicians Khokhlov and Archakov makes me so humble: I literally stand on the shoulders of the giants,” the laureate added.

This year’s event was co-hosted by Elsevier and the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. The Scopus Award is supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences, The Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Skolkovo Foundation and a number of leading universities.