Maxim Zdorovets, director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Astana, has written or coauthored 480 papers indexed on Scopus, and one analysis puts him as the third most cited researcher in Kazakhstan. His prolific publication record has been linked to Russian paper mills, though those claims are unverified.

In 2023, Zdorovets won a Scopus prize supported by Elsevier and the government of Kazakhstan to recognize leading Kazakh researchers. He was also recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan.

The head of a nuclear physics institute in Kazakhstan now has 21 retractions to his name – most of them logged in the past year – following dozens of his papers being flagged on PubPeer for data reuse and images showing suspiciously similar patterns of background noise, suggesting manipulation.

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2025/12/09/one-of-kazakhstans-top-nuclear-physicists-also-leads-his-nation-in-retractions/

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