Born in Bulgaria, Dr. Hishow studied Business Administration and Engineering at Technische Universität Dresden and received his doctorate in the Department of Regional Economics at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin. He has served as Senior Researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia (1984-1990) and as Analyst at the Federal Office for Foreign Asylum Seekers in Nuremberg (1993-1995). Dr. Hishow has been a Visiting Scholar at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, in the Department of Economic Policy at Universität Passau, and at the Center for European and Russian Studies at UCLA. He has also taught as Visiting Professor at the Center for Polish and Central European Studies at the University of Rochester (New York) in 2008 and 2012.  His research areas include economic policy, with a special emphasis on monetary and fiscal aspects, growth, innovation, and employment. Dr. Hishow currently works on EU economic reforms, economic integration of new EU members, the consequences of membership enlargement and globalization on growth and employment in the EU, and the possible introduction of the Euro in new member-states.