From Abroad to Armenia: Three Scientists Advancing Research with ANSEF

For years, scientists Gor Nikoghosyan, Vahagn Abgaryan, and Hakob Avetisyan studied and worked abroad. Today, they are back in Armenia, working together as a research team to tackle some of the challenging problems of mathematical physics, with Gor Nikoghosyan serving as the team’s Principal Investigator (PI) and leading its research efforts.

Formed in 2023, their group was one of 10 research teams awarded a grant in spring 2026 by the Yervant Terzian Armenian National Science and Education Fund (ANSEF). This year, ANSEF provided grants to research groups pursuing innovative and applied ideas, with each grant amounting to the AMD equivalent of $7,500. This team was specifically selected to receive the Yeramyan Family ANSEF Award.

With the support of the grant and part of the project, the team is exploring questions at the intersection of quantum optics and quantum information, including how quantum states of light propagate through turbulent media and how turbulence affects the structure of light waves. The team has already achieved promising results. Under Nikoghosyan’s leadership, the researchers have published a paper in Physical Review A., one of the leading journals in the field.

“The grant is essentially additional support on top of basic funding. It gives a researcher the opportunity to focus exclusively on science and devote their full potential and time to scientific problems,” Nikoghosyan says.

He emphasizes that these are questions of fundamental science—the foundation on which future applied research and technological advances are built.

“All of these problems are rooted in fundamental science, and it is clear why they are important for a country. Any applied result is ultimately based on fundamental science,” he says.

Vahagn Abgaryan stresses that research funding is essential not only for specific projects, but for the development of science as a profession.

“If we identify a set of problems that goes beyond our core research direction, there still needs to be funding for it, because this kind of work contributes to the development of scientific thinking. Scientists pursue knowledge for the sake of advancing science, but professional scientific work must be properly funded,” he says.

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All three scientists are graduates of the Physics Faculty at Yerevan State University. Nikoghosyan and Abgaryan studied and worked at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, while Avetisyan pursued his PhD and earned his academic degree in Brazil.

When Avetisyan returned to Armenia in 2016, he had to take on work outside science to make a living. Today, thanks to research funding opportunities, he can devote his time entirely to science.

He believes grants such as ANSEF’s are particularly valuable for theoretical researchers and for students who want to pursue careers in science. The researchers also see fundamental science as closely connected to education. A strong scientific system depends not only on supporting established researchers, but also on preparing the next generation of students who can develop the skills and curiosity needed to pursue scientific questions.

Avetisyan also spent time working as a physics teacher at a school, an experience that reinforced his belief in the importance of inspiring children’s curiosity and love for the natural sciences from an early age.

That makes the latest PISA results particularly concerning researchers. Only 28% of 15-year-old students in Armenia reach the baseline level of proficiency in science, compared with an OECD average of 74%. Armenia also ranks behind the other countries of the South Caucasus by this measure. The results point to serious gaps in mathematics, science, and reading literacy among Armenian teenagers.

“This is a devastating tragedy. We will see the consequences of these 10 years from now. Instead of looking for someone to blame, we need to start fixing the situation,” Abgaryan says.

“We like to say that Armenia’s greatest advantage is its human and intellectual capital, but the facts tell us otherwise. There is a sharp divide. There are young people who are exceptionally talented and determined, and there are a number of excellent schools, but there are also educational institutions where the situation is extremely poor.

“We are going to retire in a country that will be run and shaped by people who have grown up with these kinds of educational outcomes. We need to think about that now.

Interest in science does not develop on its own. It requires opportunities to explore, compete, experiment, and learn. FAR continues to create and expand those opportunities.

ANSEF, meanwhile, has been supporting scientists and young researchers for 26 years. Over that period, it received 3,732 research proposals and awarded grants to 632 research groups. Total grant funding has exceeded the AMD equivalent of $3.267 million, helping scholars pursue new discoveries and advance scientific research in Armenia.

For scientists like Nikoghosyan, Abgaryan, and Avetisyan, the future of science is inseparable from the quality of education and the opportunities available to the next generation.

They acknowledge that the age of artificial intelligence will bring both new possibilities and new challenges for science. But one thing, they say, will remain essential: intellectual preparedness. For Armenia to compete, it will need to invest in the people capable of asking difficult questions, pursuing new ideas, and pushing the boundaries of knowledge.