Mikhail Balaev received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Oregon in 2008. Growing up in Soviet Russia, he witnessed the massive socio-economic change brought by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which inspired his interest in sociology. Prior to coming to Flinders University, Mikhail worked at Washington State University in the United States.

Mikhail is a macro-sociologist with broad academic interests in economic and political sociology and research methods. His current work analyses the role of the economic elite in the formation of the upper level of the executive branch in the U.S. government. This NSF and ASA sponsored multi-year project includes the collection of data on the professional affiliations of Presidential appointees before and after executive government office from 1978 to the present. His goal is to create a dynamic time-series network model of the political power elite in the U.S.