Cancer cells and climate change are the focus of this year's Women in Science Excellence Award winners

Each year, the prize is awarded to inspiring researchers who have made a lasting contribution to both national and international science. In the Earth Sciences category, the award went to Edina Lengyel, a researcher at the University of Pannonia, University of Pannonia, Limnology and HUN-REN-PE Limnoecology Research Group.

This year's winners of the Women in Science Excellence Awards are researching cancer cells and climate change. Gyöngyi Munkácsy and Edina Lengyel were honoured for their outstanding scientific achievements and mentoring activities.

The awards are presented annually to inspiring women researchers who have made a lasting impact in both the domestic and international scientific community and who are also keen to promote science and engineering careers to young girls, according to a statement from the Women in Science Association sent to MTI on Thursday. As they write, the Nature Prize-winning Women in Science Association established the Women in Science Excellence Award in 2013 to recognise the work of the most outstanding women researchers in their field, which was awarded for the eleventh time under the auspices of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO in connection with this year's Women's Day.

In the Earth Sciences category, the award was given to Edina Lengyel, a researcher at the University of Pannonia, Limnology and HUN-REN-PE Limnoecology Research Group, who is working on the important group of organisms of shallow wetlands, diatoms. Through field and laboratory work, he seeks answers to how human activities are altering the presence and ecosystem services provided by diatoms in freshwaters and saline environments. Their results, published in peer-reviewed journals, and the specific indicators developed by their research team have since been widely used, including for ecological condition assessments of lakes," the release says. Edina Lengyel is quoted as saying: "The importance of water is unquestionable, so preserving our waters and keeping them in good condition is a priority and an urgent task for the present and the future.

Congratulations to our colleague for this recognition!