Alexey Gunya is Senior Researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Informatics  and Problems of Regional Development in Kabardino-Balkaria (North Caucasus) and the Institute of Geography in Moscow. The main focus of his research is the sustainable development of mountain areas. Since early 1990s, he has organized and participated in various expeditions to mountainous regions of Central Asia and Caucasus, coordinated international projects concerned with sustainable development of Caucasian and Central Asian transitional societies and lectured at Russian and foreign universities. He earned his PhD (kandidatskaya degree) and Doctor’s degree from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geography.