In 2026, Alexander KLIMOV, a 6th-year student of the OSMU Faculty of Preventive Medicine, became one of the recipients of the Scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation for students, cadets, and trainees enrolled in higher education programs. According to Alexander, he learned about the scholarship competition from the course representative, studied the participation requirements, and prepared a set of documents reflecting his academic and scientific achievements.
- To take part in the competition, I had to submit information about my academic performance, diplomas from competitions, and an article published in the Fundamental and Clinical Medicine journal, which is included in the Russian Science Citation Index, the list of the Higher Attestation Commission, and the Unified State List of Scientific Publications, also known as the «White List». One of the criteria was the absence of satisfactory grades throughout the entire period of study and at least 75% excellent grades over the past two semesters. I met all these requirements. The published article and a prize-winning place in a literary review competition became my scientific achievements.
- What research topic are you working on?
- The topic of the article is «Approaches to the Substantiation of Population Reference Values for the Body Roundness Index (BRI) in the Russian Population: The Example of the Adult Population of the Omsk Region». It was published in the first issue of the journal this year, just before the start of the scholarship competition. The article was prepared in cooperation with academic staff from the OSMU Department of Hygiene and Nutrition and the Department of Epidemiology. I carried out the main part of the work with Prof. Denis V. TURCHANINOV, MD, Dr Sci (in Medicine), Head of the Department of Hygiene and Nutrition. This marked the beginning of my path in scientific research, and I am very grateful to him for that. The Body Roundness Index, or BRI, is a geometric index used to quantitatively assess an individual’s body shape and fat distribution. It is also used to assess individual and population risks of developing various diseases, and in some cases it performs even better than the widely used body mass index. However, reference ranges for this index currently exist only abroad. If applied directly to our population, they may produce a distorted picture. Therefore, the aim of the study was to substantiate reference values for the Russian population using the adult population of the Omsk Region as an example.
- What did winning the competition mean to you? Was it an important stage in your professional development?
- When I found out that I had won the competition for the Scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation, I was honestly a little shocked. Of course, winning the competition itself probably will not directly influence my choice of future profession, but participation in scientific work helped me determine its direction.
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