US equivalents of Russian academic titles I am looking for US equivalents of Russian academic titles, such as &quot;Kandidat Nauk&quot; and &quot;Doctor Nauk&quot;. I've done my research and come up with a list of translations of these terms. I'd like to know which of these translated titles are the most recognized/appropriate in the US academic world and whether they carry the full meaning of the Russian titles.
Кандидат наук (Kandidat Nauk) – Ph.D./Doctoral Candidate/First Doctoral Degree
Доктор наук (Doctor Nauk) – Grand Ph.D./Senior Doctoral Degree/Higher Doctoral Degree/Second Doctoral Degree.
Here are some of the Internet sources I used:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidate_of_Sciences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doktor_nauk
https://www.englishelp.ru/translator/articles-for-translator/288-translating-academic-degrees.html
http://www.aic.lv/ace/tools/leg_aca/guid_rus.htm
From how it should work, the situation is like this:

Kandidat nauk (кандидат наук) is a PhD holder. Not a PhD candidate, but a done PhD.
Doktor nauk (доктор наук) is something not really common in the US system. It's the higher doctorate in the UK or a habilitation in a European system.

Now what you get recognized depends on the local authorities, but ideally that should be it.
Bonus: the typical position names in ex-Soviet system are junior and senior research staff (младший научный сотрудник, старший научный сотрудник). Typically, you have the former when you are doing your PhD and the latter when you are a postdoc/tenure track researcher.