Featured Lendület Researcher: Balázs Hangya

From among the 136 researchers included on the joint list of candidates, the Assembly of Academicians elected the new full, corresponding, external, and honorary members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on Wednesday, May 7.

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The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) and the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences are celebrating the 200th anniversary of their foundation this year. To mark this milestone, numerous events will take place between May 2025 and December 2026.

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This prestigious award is given every five years by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to the author of the most outstanding and groundbreaking mathematical monograph of breakthrough significance, presenting new results and methods of the author’s own, published anywhere and in any language in the previous fifteen years, taking into account the author’s previous scientific work. According to the committee responsible for the award, János Kollár’s achievements have had an invaluable impact on modern complex algebraic geometry.

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The Momentum MSCA Programme aims to strengthen international visibility and enhance the European and global impact of the MTA’s Lendület Programme by supporting incoming mobility and fostering research excellence. The current call is open for applications from excellent postdoctoral researchers, with the aim of selecting and supporting 15 fellows.

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More than 30 European science academies and scientific societies – including the Hungarian Academy of Sciences – signed the open letter, that urges the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament to invest more in technology development, because Europe has lost its leading position in the field of research and innovation.

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Literally every minute counts in the effective treatment of a stroke, as the oxygen-deprived areas of the brain start to die immediately. The crisis is most often caused by a blood clot, which is either dissolved by medication or mechanically pulled out of the vessel. However, clot dissolution can have serious side effects, and doctors currently have no quick test to decide on the most appropriate treatment. Zsuzsa Bagoly, Associate Professor in the Division of Clinical Laboratory Science at the University of Debrecen’s Institute of Laboratory Medicine, is working to develop such a test with the support of the Momentum Programme, and the results will be useful in patient care almost immediately.

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Theoretical chemistry has now moved out of the shadow of experimental chemistry and has become an exploratory science in its own right. Gábor Czakó, Associate Professor and Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and head of the Research Group on Theoretical Reaction Dynamics of the Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science at the University of Szeged, argues that it is often the case nowadays that if the experimental and calculated results do not match, then there is something wrong with the experiments. The Momentum research group he leads is trying to unravel the molecular and atomic mechanisms of the most fundamental organic chemical reactions using mathematical methods.

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The rise of social media, amongst other phenomena, has created a completely new situation in political communication. This may also affect the functioning of political representation, which many political scientists believe has been in crisis in many democracies in recent decades. Márton Bene, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Political Science of the Centre for Social Sciences and head of the Momentum research group on Political Representation in the Age of Social Media, and his colleagues are therefore investigating the impact of social media. These effects may not only be at the level of the electorate, but may also influence the messages politicians send.

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Tumours, including tumours of the haematopoietic organs, continue to kill many people, so research into them, whether exploratory research or knowledge that can be used in treatment, is a priority. Csaba Bödör, Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research at Semmelweis University, and Head of the Molecular Oncohematology Momentum Research Group, has been investigating haematological tumours for more than a decade. The work of the research group is being continued with the help of the Momentum grant, and their results are likely to have immediate applications in patient care.

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The World Science Forum 2024, held in Budapest, brought together leading scientists and policymakers from around the globe to address pressing challenges facing the scientific community. While one of the central themes emerging from the discussions was the apparent decline in trust in science, this trend, as the conversations revealed, might not be as universal as often portrayed in Western media.

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The World Science Forum (WSF) had the opportunity to speak with Professor Ana Maria Cetto after the two sessions she was involved in as a speaker at this year’s event. A wide range of topics came up in our conversation, including the lack of science in people’s lives, how Open Science should be rethought, the commercialisation of science and free access, and bringing science closer to people.

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The 11th World Science Forum, held in Budapest, Hungary on 20-23 November, ended with a declaration accepted unanimously by the founding and partner organisations and participants of WSF2024. The next Forum will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2026, and will be titled “Science for Global Resilience and Equity”.

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In a world shaped by rapid scientific and technological advancements, the challenges of integrating these breakthroughs into society’s consciousness are immense. At the recent 2024 World Science Forum (WSF), Dr Margaret Hamburg, Co-President of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), sat down to talk with the WSF about the panel she participated in on “Risk Assessment – Weighing Risk in Policymaking” and her views on policymaking. Her perspectives underscore the interplay between science, policymaking and public trust, and how we can become more resilient in the face of today’s global challenges.

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The World Science Forum (WSF) had the opportunity to speak with Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim, president of TWAS and Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA, amongst the many sessions she had been moderating or speaking at during this year’s event. A wide range of topics came up in our conversation, including rethinking open science and science literacy, the need for investments in science, the safety of scientists and the effects of conflict, and helping women scientists thrive.

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On 1 and 2 October 2024, the traditional meeting of the academies of the Visegrad Group was held in the Czech capital.

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In the last decades, there have been significant changes in the foreign policy orientation of the Visegrád countries: the unilateral Euro-Atlantic orientation has been replaced by an East-West mixed orientation. Miklós Sebők, Research Professor at the HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science, Department for Government and Public Policy, and head of the MTA-TK Lendület (Momentum) V-SHIFT Research Group, and his colleagues use state-of-the-art artificial intelligence methods to investigate the foreign policy shifts in the countries of the Central and Eastern European region, based on all parliamentary documents and countless newspaper articles of the past 35 years. Such a scale and depth of analysis would have been unthinkable before AI.

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A few months ago, Professor Péter Hegyi, Director of the Semmelweis University Centre for Translational Medicine and Director of the University of Pécs Institute for Translational Medicine succeeded László Lovász, former president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, as director of the Academia Europaea Budapest Knowledge Hub. In our interview, the new director says that his two main objectives are to accelerate the practical and social use of scientific discoveries and to support the visibility of Hungarian researchers and scientific results abroad.

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In medical research, it is vitally important that each study is conducted in accordance with international professional recommendations and expectations, that the results are accessible to all, and that the lessons of proven discoveries are transferred into clinical practice as soon as possible. However, these conditions are not always met. Szimonetta Lohner, Associate Professor at the Institute of Public Health Medicine at the University of Pécs, and her research group, established under the Momentum Programme, is investigating the practice of medical research to achieve these goals.

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Magdolna Hargittai discusses her latest book which focuses ont he achievements of female sicentists and the importance of role models in promoting and supportint more women in STEM.

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We had the honor of hosting Adam Riess, one of the recipients of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, as a guest in the Ceremonial Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, where he not only presented the story of his groundbreaking discovery that stirred the scientific community, but also talked about the far-reaching consequences of it in astrophysics. The video recording of his lecture is available in our article.

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The new leadership of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences will be elected by its General Assembly on 9 May 2023. The preparations for the election of the Academy leadership due in 2023 have been completed by the 22-member Nomination Committee, composed of members delegated by the eleven scientific sections, who are either members of the Academy or non-member representatives delegated to the General Assembly, in line with the provisions of the Academy’s Statutes as well as the Committee’s own Rules of Procedure.

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In this interview, Professor Istvan Hargittai discusses his motivation for writing his latest book ‘Brilliance in Exile,’ which explores the lives of Hungarian émigré scientists who have made significant contributions to science after leaving their country of birth.

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What is the benefit for us urban dwellers of encountering wildflower meadows or vegetable gardens on our way home? Does sex reversal in a significant number of urban frogs help in adaptation? Are urban birds any smarter than those living in their natural habitats? These were some of the questions discussed at the special session organised by the Academia Europaea Budapest Knowledge Hub on 22 March 2023, which focused on the conservation and restoration of urban habitats.

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Vera T. Sós was born on 11 September 1930 in Budapest. She completed her university studies in the Mathematics and Physics Department of Eötvös Lorand University (ELTE). She was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1985 and a full member in 1990.

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By unfolding the enigma of the exceptional success of Hungarian emigrant scientists and telling their fascinating life stories, Brilliance in Exile combines scholarly analysis with stimulating portrayals of uncommon personalities. Istvan and Balazs Hargittai discuss the conditions that defined five waves of emigration from the early twentieth century to the present.

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Eric Hanushek, professor at Stanford University, is one of the best-known and most influential scholars in the field of economics of education, having worked on a wide range of topics such as teacher quality, the effects of class size reduction, school accountability, and more recently, the relationship between economic growth and the skill levels in countries. Professor Hanushek gave a lecture at Hungarian Academy of Sciences about education in a changing world. On this occasion we asked him about the good teachers, optimal class sizes, talented and average students, the basic skills and the artificial intelligence.

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Biosphere reserves are the outcome of a unique endeavour to integrate research, nature conservation and sustainable development. Their past, present and future were explored at a World Science Forum side event co-organized by UNESCO and MTA under the title “Biosphere Reserves: Shining Gems of Natural Ecosystems”.

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To honour this year’s WSF motto of “Science for Social Justice”, all the speakers of the opening event urged the global scientific community with one voice to put science at the service of society, drawing on all the tools and means at hand, and to make a strong commitment to fighting against social inequalities and all the evils they bring. The World Science Forum in Cape Town officially began on 6 December with the Opening Ceremony, where the co-organising states were represented by their respective Heads of State and Ministers, with the international partner organisations represented by their top executives.

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A side event co-organised by the Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO), the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Science and Innovation of South Africa, looked into the current availability of and future potential for large research facilities at the service of basic science working towards the fulfilment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

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The Wednesday afternoon plenary session “Science for climate justice – How can science, working with civil society, lead the way in correcting the failure of climate policy?” was one of the most interesting sections of the whole World Science Forum thus far. Africa is the most authentic location for the discussion of this topic because, unfortunately, the low-income states of the continent will be harshly affected by climate change. Therefore, climate justice will be one of the most important scientific and political problems of the coming decades.

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The most prestigious global forum for science diplomacy is reaching a new milestone in its history this year: it is visiting the African continent for the first time. The 10th World Science Forum will be taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 6 to 9 December 2022. Convened under the main theme “Science for Social Justice”, this year’s forum calls on decision-makers to recognise the vital role that science must play in solving the world’s worsening societal, economic and environmental crises.

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The delegations of the V4 Academies started their two-day forum with a workshop dedicated to the performance of V4 countries in the grant schemes of the European Research Council. Below is a summary of the main messages of the workshop.

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Few are those among contemporary researchers who will have a number named after them. Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford University and Honorary Member of MTA, Robin Dunbar is actually one of them. The number he introduced has come to feature in each and every book on human evolution. One of the best-known anthropologists of our time, Professor Dunbar. We spoke to him on this occasion, asking him, of course, about the origin and scope of Dunbar’s number.

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After three years, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has returned to the influential scientific advocacy organisation as a research funding institution.

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The Visegrad Group Academies Forum held its annual meeting at the Headquarters of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on 26-27 May 2022. The focus of the two-day meeting was on the success of European Research Council (ERC) grants, the V4 academies’ uniformly outstanding epidemiological research and communication activities, help for Ukraine, young researcher initiatives, and cooperation in the use of European-level research infrastructures and in the application of advanced therapy medicinal products. At the forum, the academy presidents issued a joint statement on the aggression against Ukraine and support for Ukrainian scientists.

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The application of the latest scientific advances and testing techniques, and greater participation by people, could significantly reduce cancer mortality in the European Union, according to a report presented in Hungary at the Headquarters of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Watch a video of the conference and read the full report.

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The Hungarian Academy of Scinces announces an open call for research proposals to finance research projects for 4 years (between 1 September 2022 – 31 August 2026), which aim to lay the foundations for the development of education and training by providing new scientific findings and to carry out research on how to renew the pedagogical perspectives and methods for knowledge transfer and the transmission of values.

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The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), on the basis of the recommendation of the Qualification Council for Research Centres (KMT), has given the MTA Centre of Excellence Award to 95 Hungarian scientific workshops and institutions in recognition of their outstanding scientific work. The representatives of the research centres that have won the prestigious award received the certificates at a ceremony at the Széchenyi tér headquarters of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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In addition to the award ceremonies and toasts, this year’s recipient of the Young Researcher Award has posted a video message from the front in Eastern Ukraine. MTA Vice President György Kosztolányi, meetings chairman of the External Members’ Forum and representative of Hungarian Academy members living abroad, called the viewing of Viktor Traski’s video a historic moment that will be written into the golden book of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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“The changes in the external environment and, thus, in the situation of the Academy have forced it to revitalise itself, but MTA has consistently been able to act as a proactive partner and is now more of a master of its own fate than it was two years ago”, said Tamás Freund in his President’s Report at the 195th General Assembly of the Academy. The President of the Academy also announced the launch of several research programmes linked to social and national strategy priorities.

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Avram Hershko, a Hungarian-born Israeli scientist, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004, gave a presentation at the 195th General Assembly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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According to the latest report of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Academies (EASAC) on regenerative agriculture, not only is ecologically sensitive agriculture not an enemy of food production but, due to climate change and environmental degradation, it will, in a few short decades, represent our only chance of being able to feed humanity. To explore the background of the report presented at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on Wednesday 6th of April, we interviewed two Hungarian members of the scientific community who were behind it – Orsolya Valkó and András Báldi.

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Prof. Tamás Freund, President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, received Prof. Tarmo Soomere, President of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, who arrived in Budapest for a meeting of the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC).

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The coronavirus pandemic demonstrated that vaccines based on radically new techniques could be more effective than previous ones. They can be developed faster and protect against those infectious diseases where previously there were no vaccines. However, it is not only mRNA that could be the basis of a new type of vaccine: peptides can also be used for this purpose. Kata Horváti, from the HAS-ELTE Research Group of Peptide Chemistry, Department of Organic Chemistry, Eötvös Loránd University, received the Lendület (Momentum) grant to develop peptide-based vaccine strategies. An overview of her research is the next step in the introduction of the researchers who are the latest recipients of the HAS’s programme of excellence.

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An eminent European Earth scientist’s talk on Europe as a “Natural Laboratory for Frontier Research in Earth Sciences”

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