Ilya Ilyin was the winner of ‘Golden HSE’ award for the ‘Silver Nestling’ nomination in 2016. In 2017, he received his Bachelor’s with distinction from ICEF and First class honour’s degree from the University of London. He is now pursuing a PhD in Economics at Boston University. In the following interview, Ilya talks about why he chose ICEF, why purely academic pursuits can be a problem, and how to combine economics with philosophy.