On June 22, NES professor Grigory Kosenok died of coronavirus in a hospital in Bryansk. He was 51 years old.
Grisha is a true and outstanding member of the NES community. He graduated from NES in 1995, and returned to alma mater after earning his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002.
He had spent many years conducting research and teaching classes in econometrics, microeconomics, and game theory. He was one of the few international experts on the empirical analysis of industry markets and auctions in our country. He was granted tenure in 2010, served as the Director of 'Master of Art in Economics' Program in 2017-2019. His research was published in the top international journals.
Grisha was loved by many generations of students for his pranks, joviality, kindness, and strict adherence to principles. He fostered many talented students and scholars.
We express our heartfelt condolences to Grigory's family, relatives, friends, and everyone who knew him. NES will provide all possible assistance to his family.
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You can leave your memories of Grigory Kosenok here.
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"I met Grigory at my flyout at NES. He was the kindest and most welcoming and made me feel super welcome at NES. He let me use his own personal PC to talk to Shlomo. I am very sad to hear about his untimely passing and wish his students and family strength in this very difficult time." Sultan Mehmood
"This is a profoundly sad announcement: Grisha Kosenok, a Professor at the New Economic School has died of Covid 19. Grisha was a member of the first cohort of doctoral students from Russia to come to Wisconsin-Madison in the mid-1990's. This cohort included Stanislav Anatolyev, who is now a Professor at NES and a top econometrician and Stanislav Volkov, who is a brilliant probability theorist at the University of Lund. It was an exciting time for me a professor, to have such remarkable students coming to the program. Those who did not grow up during the Cold War will not be able to appreciate how extraordinary it felt to have Russian students come to America. It was a new world opening up. Grisha was a star student from the get go. He was my TA for graduate macro and was a splendid teacher. I have warm memories of Grisha coming to my home for Christmas and playing video games with my children. Memories that make me smile involves Grisha and his car. He typically parked in the faculty lot and I often ran into him. I would tease him about his risk loving behavior but he always assured me his data proved that the expected cost if ticketed was lower than cost of student parking. I recall it being said that, among the Russian students, he supposedly was first to get a driver’s license because he had experience driving a tank in the army. Grisha was a deep thinker and profoundly decent person. A terrible loss." Steven Durlauf
"This is incredibly sad. Grisha, you will be missed by many. Our deepest condolences to your family." Artur Minkin
"So sorry to hear about this. I overlapped with Grisha in the 1990s in Madison and had the good fortune to see him again when I visited NES in Moscow in 2012. A very kind and warm soul." Brian Knight
"If anyone has ever doubted the value of education, all you would need to do to restore your confidence is sit in on the thesis defenses of Grisha’s students. I had the great fortune to do so a couple of times. You would encounter the beauty of the transfer of human capital and witness the care, empathy, respectfulness, and skill of a master of his craft. I loved that at any moment Grisha could transport any intellect to a profound depth of understanding of our discipline or instead commandeer a smile or a laugh about the human condition. In my mind, I am making a pilgrimage to a birch tree in a forest near his village that may or may not be on a path to foreign lands." Paul Castañeda Dower
