News

New Academic Placements for CERGE-EI PhD Candidates, Graduates, and Postdocs

17 September, 2026

CERGE-EI congratulates recent PhD candidates, graduates, and postdoctoral researchers taking up new academic positions at universities and research institutions across Europe and the United States.

Maksim Smirnov will continue his work as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Aarhus Center for Econometrics at Aarhus University.

Sona Badalyan will take up a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Applied Microeconomics in the Department of Economics at the University of Bonn, while Elizaveta Zelnitskaia will begin a two-year postdoctoral appointment at the University of Copenhagen.

Cagin Keskin is joining the Institute of Economics at the HUN-REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies as a Postdoctoral Researcher. Reflecting on his time at CERGE-EI and the work he plans to develop in his new role, Cagin said: “Throughout my PhD, my advisors and the faculty were always ready to talk through my research and to help me with it. Beyond that, the seminar culture put me in a room with researchers from around the world on a regular basis. The postdoc at HUN-REN KRTK is a chance to take that further and to build out work on firm scope, intangibles, and innovation that began as my dissertation.”

Theodor Kouro has secured a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of California, San Diego. Reflecting on the support he received at CERGE-EI, Theodor shared: “Help was always available at CERGE-EI—though, much like at Hogwarts, you still have to do the magic yourself. CERGE-EI gave me the foundation to dream bigger, and I am excited to continue that journey at UCSD!”

New appointments also include CERGE-EI postdoctoral researchers and alumni. Alexander Hansak will take up a postdoctoral position at the University of Graz.

Konuray Mutluer will remain at CERGE-EI, where he is joining the faculty as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor.

Congratulations to Maksim, Sona, Elizaveta, Cagin, Theodor, Alexander, and Konuray on their new appointments. We wish them success in their research and teaching in the years ahead.