Since April 2003 she has been the Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOM RAS) at Saint Petersburg, Russia.
She is also Head of the Department of Manuscripts and Documents of the IOM RAS, and Full Professor at St Petersburg State University.
Popova graduated in 1983 from the St Petersburg State University (Faculty of Asian and African Studies, Department of the History of Far East), and completed her Ph.D. in 1989 at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The subject of her Ph.D. thesis (in Russian) is "Rules for Emperors" ("Difan") by Tang Taizong as a source on the Chinese Political Thought of the 7th century, and the subject of her Doctoral thesis (in Russian) is The Theory of the State Rulership in the Early Tang China.
Basing primarily on the documents of the Tang dynasty, Popova has contributed to the study of imperial rulership in medieval China and the study of the influence of the political practice and imperial ideology in pre-modern China.
Popova is an author of more than 200 academic works [6], including 9 monographs (5 of them are collective); editor of 19 collected works; Editor-in-chief of academic journals: “Pis'mennye pamiatniki Vostoka” (“Written Monuments of the Orient” in Russian), “Strany i Narody Vostoka” (“Countries and Peoples of the Orient”), “Written Monuments of the Orien” (English version); Deputy Chair of the editorial board of the academic series “Pamiatniki pismennosti Vostoka” (“Written Monuments in the Oriental Scripts”).
Member of the editorial boards of Russian and foreign academic periodicals, including “Turfan Studies” (“Tulufan Yanju”, in China), “Study of the Documents in the Chinese Minorities Scripts” (“Minzu guji Yanju”, China), “Studia Orientalia Slovaca” (University of Bratislava), etc.
Политическая практика и идеология раннетанского Китая [Political Practice and Ideology of Early Tang China].
Popova I. F. The Administrative and Legal Regulations of the Tang Emperors for the Frontier Territories.
Society for Asian Legal History, The Hall Center for the Humanities, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Ks., 2004, рр.
Картины народной жизни (миньсухуа) [Beijing During the Qing Dynasty: Pictures of Folklife (Minsuhua)].
Dunhuang Studies: Prospects and Problems for the Coming Second Century of Research / 敦煌學:第二個百年的研究視角與問題 / Дуньхуановедение: перспективы и проблемы второго столетия исследований.
Тангуты в Центральной Азии [Tanguts in Central Asia: Collected Work in Honor of the 80th Anniversary of Prof. E. I. Kychanov].
История Китая с древнейших времен до начала XXI века [The History of China from Ancient Times to the Beginning of the 21st century] in 10 volumes.
III: Троецарствие, Цзинь, Южные и Северные династии, Суй, Тан (220–907) [Three Kingdoms, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang (220–907)].
История Китая с древнейших времен до начала XXI века [The History of China from Ancient Times to the Beginning of the 21st century] in 10 volumes.
Период Пяти династий, империя Сун, государства Ляо, Цзинь, Си Ся (907–1279) [The Period of the Five Dynasties, the Song Empire, the States of Liao, Jin, Xi Xia (907–1279)].
Translation from Chinese, publication, transcription, research and annexes by I. F. Popova and Takata Tokio.
Жемчужины китайских коллекций Института восточных рукописей РАН/ Pearls from the Chinese Collections of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS.