Heidi Kjærnet is a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) at Stanford University.  She is visiting from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute where she is a Research Fellow.

At PESD Heidi is working on her research project on the National Oil Companies of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia, focusing on how these post-Soviet governments manage their oil and gas sectors. The project aims to contribute to our knowledge on state-business relations in the post-Soviet area as well as on the governments' strategies and capacities in managing their important petroleum sectors.  The project's theoretical ambition is to explore the usefulness of principal-agent theory in authoritarian contexts.

Heidi's previous research has included work on the potential for renewable energy in Russia, the interconnections between energy relations and foreign policy strategies in Azerbaijani-Russian relations, and on the community of internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan in light of the country's oil boom.

Heidi holds an MA in Russia and Post-Soviet Affairs from the University of Oslo. She has taken intensive Russian language courses at the Norwegian Center in St Petersburg and interned at the Royal Norwegian Embassy to Azerbaijan. Currently she is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Tromso.