Igor R. Nabiev graduated from the secondary school of the city of Vileika, Minsk region, the former Belorussian Republic of the Soviet Union (now Belarus) with Golden Medal (highest honors) and entered the Department of Theoretical and Experimental Physics of Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, where he majored in biophysics. Within 2.5 years after graduation (in 1980) with honors, Nabiev prepared his candidate dissertation (PhD thesis) in physics and mathematics under the supervision of Prof. Viktor Ivanovich Ivanov, D.Sc., and received the degree from the Department of Biology of Moscow State University in March 1983.

Nabiev's research in SERS biospectroscopy in the 1980s attracted much attention of the scientific community and won him a number of prestigious scientific prizes. Nabiev was invited as a visiting professor to Georgia Technological Institute, Atlanta, Georgia, United States (1989); Pittsburgh University, Pittsburgh, United States (1990); and the University of Reims Champagne‐Ardenne (Université de Reims Champagne‐Ardenne), France (1991–1994).

In 1994 Nabiev accepted full professorship in the University of Reims Champagne‐Ardenne, France, where he is now directing nano-biotechnological developments in the Laboratory for Research in Nanoscience (Laboratorie de Recherche en Nanosciences, LRN-EA4682).

Since 2000, Prof. Nabiev has been developing the methods for synthesis semiconductor nanocrystals, functional modification of their surface, and their biomedical applications as fluorescent tags for ultrasensitive detection and biomedical diagnosis. He was the first European researcher to patent diagnostic systems based on nanocrystals conjugated with recognizing molecules.

At present, Prof. Nabiev coordinates a number of national (French and Russian) and international (European Union) research programs on the development of ultrasensitive nano-biotechnological detection systems using solid-state and liquid-phase chips. He also supervises basic research and applied developments in nanosafety and nanomedicine. Prof. Nabiev is the director of European Technological Platform "Semiconductor Nanocrystals" in the framework of the NAMDIATREAM project (the Institute of Molecular Medicine of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland).