Featured Lendület Researcher: Balázs Reizer

Hungarian workers still earn significantly less than their Western counterparts. In order for this situation to change, it is essential to uncover the underlying causes of this phenomenon. This is the task undertaken by Balázs Reizer, Senior Research Fellow at the ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies and Head of the Momentum Technology and Inequality Research Group, together with his colleagues. With his team, he is investigating what Hungarian workers actually do during their working hours and how the innovative transformation and robotisation of production affect workers in different job roles.

Péter Pál Pach, Senior Research Fellow at the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics and Head of the MTA–HUN–REN RI Momentum (Lendület) Arithmetic Combinatorics Research Group, continues his research work. Together with his co-authors, he was awarded the Frontiers of Science Award in 2024 for their 2016 paper, in which they developed a new version of the polynomial method. The research group’s work focuses on fundamental research in the field of arithmetic combinatorics. However, this field has numerous connections to other branches of mathematics, so the research group’s results will also be of use to mathematicians researching many other problems.

Waterbirds play a much more important role in the dispersal of aquatic plants, and even of invertebrate animals, than was previously assumed, as they consume reproductive seeds and other propagules and then excrete them in another small pond. Ádám Lovas-Kiss, research fellow at the Institute of Aquatic Ecology of the HUN–REN Centre for Ecological Research and head of the Momentum Dispersal Ecology Research Group, is studying this process with the support of the Momentum Programme. The importance of his research is further increased by the fact that climate change is causing more and more wetlands to disappear and the condition of aquatic communities to deteriorate.

Although quantum electrodynamics is considered a well-established theory in physics, in chemistry – in the world of atoms and molecules – it still raises a number of unresolved questions. Edit Mátyus, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry at Eötvös Loránd University, and head of the Molecular Quantum Electrodynamics Research Group, and her colleagues are attempting to answer these questions with the support of the Momentum Programme.

Often, the simplest models are needed to understand the most complex laws of nature. This is especially true for interacting electron systems, about which we still know relatively little today because, until now, we have not had access to sufficiently simple model crystals. Despite this, Péter Nemes-Incze, head of the Momentum Topology in Nanostructures Research Group at the Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science of the HUN–REN Centre for Energy Research, and his colleagues believe that this model could be rhombohedral graphite, which they are investigating with the support of their Momentum grant.

Nowadays, telecommunications providers and IT companies collect vast amounts of electronic data about us. These databases may contain sensitive personal data, which means they also carry risks, but at the same time they can be an incredibly valuable source of information for the social sciences. Balázs Lengyel, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics of the HUN-REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, and his colleagues are analysing some of this data with the support of the Momentum (Lendület) Programme. The researcher has won a Momentum grant for the second time – now in the advanced category – and is currently researching innovation and inequality in dynamic urban networks.

Various neurological diseases and conditions often affect a person’s speech. Tekla Etelka Gráczi, Senior Research Fellow at the HUN-REN Research Centre for Linguistics’ Institute for General and Hungarian Linguistics, and her Momentum research group are investigating this effect in subjects with Parkinson’s disease, Down syndrome and multiple sclerosis. Their research examines the acoustic characteristics of spoken sounds and the mechanism of sound production.

Réka Lukács, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research of the HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences is researching fundamental questions in volcanology with her team, with the support of the Momentum Programme. In addition to its scientific value, their research also has important practical and even disaster management implications, as hundreds of millions of people around the world live near dangerous volcanoes. It is therefore vital that we understand the workings of volcanoes as well as possible, so that our predictive models can become increasingly accurate.

Automorphic forms play an important role in many areas of mathematics, including number theory, geometry, analysis and mathematical physics. Gergely Harcos, Research Professor at the HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics and Head of the Momentum Automorph Research Group, is researching these automorphic forms with the support of the Momentum Programme. According to the researcher, the study of these mathematical objects could even bring us closer to one of the “holy grails” of mathematics, the proof of the Riemann hypothesis.

Péter Kele, Head of the Organic Chemistry Research Group of the HUN-REN Institute of Organic Chemistry at the HUN-REN Natural Science Research Centre, and his colleagues are developing bioorthogonal functional groups that can “switch on and off” the molecule attached to them in response to light. This can be very useful in the case of active pharmaceutical ingredients, for example, as it may be possible to activate the chemotherapeutic agent only once it has attached to a tumour cell.

Although curing melanoma is considered a success story in cancer therapy, with immunotherapy playing a central role, there are still patients who do not respond well to treatment. Thus, it is of paramount importance to find immunotherapies to which tumour cells do not become resistant or to which they have more difficulty in becoming resistant. Vince Lajos Kemény, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Life Sciences and the Department of Dermatology, Nematology and Dermatological Oncology at Semmelweis University, and his colleagues are searching for therapeutic targets with the support of the Lendület (Momentum) Programme and consider it important to bring their results into everyday clinical practice as soon as possible.

How do the neurons in the lateral septum of the brain, which are important for thinking-related brain function and communicate with each other via acetylcholine, behave? This is the question that Balázs Hangya and his research team, supported by MTA’s Lendület (Momentum) Programme, are trying to answer. In addition to the function of nerve cells, the researchers are also investigating their role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

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.

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.

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.

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.