Ádám Dénes won the Talentum Prize

Friday, 29 April, 2022
Tags: News

There are still many talented people today, and there are also a good number of successful ones, but far fewer have been awarded a Talent Award. However, Ádám Dénes is one of them, as he was one of the first winners of the National Academy of Sciences' Talentum Prize!

There are still many talented people today, and there are also a good number of successful ones, but far fewer have been awarded a Talent Award. However, Ádám Dénes is one of them, as he was one of the first winners of the National Academy of Sciences' Talentum Prize!

Szeged is a famous city, as the song goes, and it is doing its best to keep it that way.
For example, there is the Szeged Foundation for the Future of Biomedical Research. The founders' idea, the Szeged Academy of Science programme established in 2013, was so successful that it could be expanded to a national programme in just a few years. The name of the foundation was changed to the National Foundation for Biomedical Sciences, and with the involvement of all cities in the country with higher education in the humanities (Budapest, Debrecen, Pécs, Szeged) and the support of the government, it will continue to operate as the National Academy of Sciences (NTA) from September 2021.
The basic objectives of their programme, such as supporting the scientific work of talented young people interested in biomedical research, making the career model of a scientist attractive, and keeping young researchers in Hungary, have been maintained, but a very significant new feature has been added. Students with research talent are supported from secondary school onwards until they become "scientists".
And there is another thing for which many high school and university students, as well as young researchers, could envy Szeged. No other Hungarian city outside the capital is visited by as many Nobel Prize winners as Szeged. This is thanks to the spring event named "Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Talented Students", which dates back 8 years earlier than the Foundation. The Nobel Prize winners who accept the invitation will not only give lectures and talk to young people but will also select the winner of 2013 founded Szent-Györgyi Talent Award, together with the members of the Foundation's Board of Trustees. Not many foundations can boast of such an achievement!
Another condition for the original award was that the discovery must be related to research carried out in Szeged. Since 2021, this has been changed so that the discovery must be the result of research carried out in Hungary or, for the most part, in Hungary. The prize is awarded for an internationally significant discovery published in the previous year or two. The prize is awarded each year at the gala evening of the spring "Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Talented Students" event.

This year, when not only research of outstanding significance in Szeged but also in Hungary was awarded, there were not one but four winners, including Ádám Dénes, head of the "Momentum" Neuroimmunology Research Group, from our institute. The new discoveries under his leadership, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of microglia and their role in inflammatory processes that contribute to the development of neurodegenerative diseases, have been reported recently.

Adam was not the only participant of our institute at the XVIII Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Young Talent (4-7 April 2022). On 6 April, the day of the gala performance and award ceremony at the Szeged National Theatre, Zoltán Nusser and Gábor Nyiri also presented a lecture at the event, which included five Nobel Prize winners.