Featured Lendület Member: Peter Maga

The chemical and pharmaceutical industries would be unthinkable today without catalysts. Therefore, the development of increasingly efficient catalysts is one of the most important goals of chemistry, as these catalysts make chemical synthesis cheaper, more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Zoltán Novák, professor in the Department of Organic Chemistry at ELTE and head of the Sustainable Catalytic Processes Research Group, and his colleagues are also working on the development of new types of catalysts which are partially recyclable and reusable and require only small amounts, can be activated by controllable external impulses, and do not require expensive precious metals.

The thalamus is one of the most underestimated brain areas. According to the classical view, its only job is to act as a switching station between the cerebral cortex and stimuli from the outside world. However, László Acsády, head of the MTA-KOKI Momentum Thalamus Research Group and deputy director of the HUN-REN Institute of Experimental Medicine (KOKI), and his colleagues have shown in recent decades that this view could not be further from the truth. Indeed, the complex communication between the cortex and the thalamus and the processing that takes place in the thalamic cells prove that this brain area plays an active role in brain function. His brain research team can now continue their research with funding from the Momentum Programme.

Riverine plankton communities are of crucial importance in maintaining the ecological health of rivers, yet compared to standing water plankton, the community of riverine floating organisms is very poorly studied. András Abonyi, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Aquatic Ecology of the Centre for Ecological Research, is changing this. He is the head of the Momentum Research Group on River Ecology and, with the support of the Momentum Programme, is investigating the transformation of the plankton community in rivers in response to river regulation and changes over time.

A growing body of research suggests that there is a link between epilepsy-related cortical hyperexcitability (i.e. excessive neuronal activity) and pathologies associated with cognitive decline, such as dementia. András Attila Horváth, Director of the Neurocognitive Research Centre of the National Institute of Mental Health, Neurology and Neurosurgery and head of the MTA-OMIII Lendület (Momentum) Neurocognitive Research Group, and his colleagues are trying to uncover the mechanism underlying this relationship. Their results could lead to new targets for treatment.

The healthy functioning of cells is inconceivable without the digestion and breakdown of defective or redundant materials or substances that have been absorbed. If this system does not function properly, it can have a number of pathological consequences. These cellular breakdown processes are carried out by membrane-lined vesicles called lysosomes. They are investigated by Gábor Juhász, Scientific Advisor of the Institute of Genetics at the Szeged Biological Research Centre and Head of the Lysosomal Degradation Research Group, with the support of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Lendület Programme.

In the Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin, huge social changes took place in the population living in the territory of present-day Hungary. Viktória Kiss, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology of the HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities and head of the MTA-BTK Lendület (Momentum) Base Research Group, and her colleagues are investigating these processes and the characteristics of the people who lived there. They are using state-of-the-art computer science, genetic and isotope-geochemical methods for this work.

In our conversations, we often recall memories which did not really happen, but are just a figment of our imagination, yet tell them enthusiastically, with full feeling, to our interlocutors. They are not lies, because we believe that they really happened to us. Ildikó Király, professor, Head of the Department of Cognitive Psychology at ELTE and Head of the Lendület MTA-ELTE Research Group on Social Minds, and her colleagues will be researching the formation, functioning and adaptive role of these memories in the coming years. These constructed memories seem to play an important role in our social relationships.

Quantum technology has the potential to revolutionise many branches of electronics, from communication to sensors to computing. Ádám Gali, professor, advisor to the Institute of Solid State Physics and Optics at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics, and head of the Lendület-funded Semiconductor Nanostructures Research Group, has been researching quantum bits in solids for some time. Since last year, he has continued his research as a winner of the now-advanced Lendület grant. Based on his results, he and his fellow researchers can lay the foundations for new types of quantum sensors.

Composite metal foams have played a significant role in many areas of industry over the last decades (for example, they are used in impact and blast protection of buildings and vehicles), but the methods used to develop them are now becoming less and less viable. Imre Norbert Orbulov, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Professor of Materials Science and Technology, and head of the MTA-BME Research Group on High Performance Composite Metal Foams, and his colleagues are therefore exploring radically new approaches to the development of metal foams to help develop materials with significantly improved properties.

Most people know only a few significant Hungarian humanist authors from the 15th and 17th centuries (the most famous of them being Janus Pannonius, Balassi and Zrínyi), although many other writers and poets also worked in Hungary during this period. Emőke Rita Szilágyi, research fellow at the Institute of Literary Studies at Research Centre for Humanities, head of the Lendület research group on Humanist Canons and Identities in the Kingdom of Hungary (1450-1630), is trying to remedy this shortcoming with her winning Lendület grant: in the coming years, she will investigate who among the authors active in the 15th through 17th centuries have remained in the public consciousness, and why, or why they have fallen out of it.

Although there are many written sources on the Roman period, very little is known about the biological, medical, nutritional and many other characteristics of the population of Pannonia. This will be remedied by the research of Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, archaeogeneticist, archaeologist, senior research fellow at the Institute of Archaeogenomics of the HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, head of the MTA-BTK Lendület Bioarchaeology Research Group, and her colleagues, who will also study, for example, camels brought here by the Romans.

In the near future, agriculture will have to face increasingly severe droughts, so we need to increase productivity in the face of growing stress to provide food for an ever-increasing human population. Zsuzsanna Kolbert Ördögné, Associate Professor at the Department of Plant Biology, University of Szeged and head of the Lendület Plant Nanobiology Research Group, and her colleagues are investigating what role seed priming with nanoagents can play in improving drought tolerance in cultivated plants.

How can waste from cross-linked polymers, which make up a smaller proportion of plastics, be recycled? Andrea Toldy, Professor in the Department of Polymer Engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and head of the MTA-BME Lendület Sustainable Polymers Research Group, is seeking answers to this question with the support of MTA’s Lendület Programme.