[1] In recognition for his outstanding research in the field of political economy, in December 2015, he was named the John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor of the University of Chicago.

Until December 2014, Sonin was Vice Rector at the Higher School of Economics, but was forced to resign for political reasons.

Initially an algebraist, he transitioned to economics after 2000–01, when he was appointed a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Davis Center for Russian studies at Harvard.

In September 2009 – March 2010 he worked as a Visiting Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

[8] In May 2014 Konstantin was a visiting scholar in Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago.