Prithu Roy, India, Nanophotonics and Metamaterials

I have been to many places and seen different labs, but work culture and atmosphere similar to the one at my department (at ITMO University – Ed.) is rare. Thanks to amazing professors and fellow researchers, I was able to publish several papers in prestigious journals as the first author. I wanted to pursue my own project for my Master’s thesis, so my department and supervisor helped with funding and technical guidance. Life can be hard in Russia if you are not used to the cold climate, but work and science fueled me through and I defended my thesis with an excellent grade.

I got a National Council for Scientific Research/European Research Council (CNRS-ERC) PhD position at the Fresnel Institute in France. I will start working there in September. 

I suggested to a lot of friends to study at ITMO and at my department, as ITMO is more than a university. My faculty is also more than a faculty – it’s a home for scientists. I tell a lot of people here in France that at ITMO and especially at my faculty, you are treated both as a student and a junior researcher, receiving an all-round development.

Andrey Giovanni Gomes de Oliveira, Brazil, Molecular Robotics and Biosensor Systems

Throughout my three years of studies at ITMO, I was able to learn Russian, improve my skills at the laboratory, take part in an exchange program at Pompeu Fabra University (Spain), participate in an internship at the Embrapa Genetic Resources & Biotechnology (Brazil), as well as successfully write and defend a Master's thesis with an excellent grade. Together with my supervisor and colleagues, I will also soon publish a scientific paper in Angewandte Chemie, one of the world’s top chemistry journals. Actually, my supervisor and I were confident that I would present my work at a conference in Oxford (England) this year, however, due to the pandemic this goal has been pushed back. Currently, I am going through the process of obtaining a scholarship to do a PhD either in Australia or Spain.

If you are coming to ITMO University, I would highly recommend you to take advantage of the many international programs (exchange semesters, internships, summer schools, and conferences) that ITMO offers to its students. I have already studied at multiple universities around the world in countries such as Brazil, Canada, Poland, Russia, and Spain. I can say that ITMO offers much more opportunities to its students than other universities out there.

Shivam Mehta, India, Machine Learning and Data Analysis

The past two years have been amazing. Russia was a lot different from India: it’s much colder and the lifestyle is different, but ITMO helped me to adjust and manage most of the things that are needed as a foreigner in Russia. The thing I liked most in Russia was working with my teachers and program coordinators. Most of my teachers are leading specialists in their fields and they guided me to be a better student and get more interested in the field. My supervisors Ivan and Andrey and my program coordinator Talgat not only guided me when I was stuck in academia, but also made sure that I don’t have problems in my professional and even personal life in Russia.

I have been offered a PhD position at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. I will continue my academic career in artificial speech synthesis using deep learning. To future students, I say come with an open mind – Russia is much more beautiful than what we know from movies or any other sources. I would like to wish them a good stay in Russia. I love Russia and its culture, educational system – everything. I hope you will like it, too, and I wish you best of luck.

You can find more interviews with international students at ITMO here.

Learn more about ITMO’s international Master’s programs here.