Member of the Research Council of Hungary
Balzan Prize and Széchenyi Prize-winning biologist, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA),
research professor at the HUN-REN Biological Research Centre, Szeged
Éva Kondorosi (née Éva Kuzsel) was born in Budapest, graduated (Biology) and later earned a PhD (Genetics) at L. Eötvös University. She began her career at the Biological Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged and was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne and visiting scholar at Sussex, Harvard, and Cornell Universities. She was a research director and a founding member of the CNRS Institut des Science Végétales led by her husband, Ádám Kondorosi in Gif-sur-Yvette, France and later she became the founding director of the BAYGEN Institute in Szeged, Hungary. Currently, she leads research at the HUN-REN Biological Research Centre in Szeged.
Her primary area of research focuses on Rhizobium-legume symbiosis and symbiotic nitrogen fixation, with significant contributions to plant cell cycle studies and developmental biology. Her groundbreaking discoveries have revolutionized the field of symbiosis. Presently, her research is centered on molecular communication between bacteria and plant cells, particularly exploring the role of hundreds of plant peptides in symbiosis and their potential as new antibiotic candidates.
For her scientific discoveries she received numerous prestigious scientific prizes including the Balzan Prize in chemical ecology, the Széchenyi Prize or the Prima Primissima prize.
Éva Kondorosi is a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and an international member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the French Academy of Agriculture, the Leopoldina (German National Academy of Sciences), Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Microbiology, and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
She has also served on high-level advisory bodies, including the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission and the United Nations Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board. Éva Kondorosi was a member and later Vice President of the European Research Council’s Scientific Council. Currently, she is a member of the Academia Europaea Board of Trustees, where she serves as chair of Life Sciences (Class C) and Vice President (ex officio).
She was the wife and an intellectual and research partner of Ádám Kondorosi (1946-2011), the renowned Széchenyi Prize-winning Hungarian geneticist.