Karikó among new members of Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Hungarian-born biochemist Katalin Karikó was elected an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudomány Akadámia – MTA) at a closed session of the organisation’s general meeting on Monday.

The 100 new academics elected on Tuesday were chosen by the Assembly of Academics from 110 researchers on the Joint Academic Candidate List.

Every three years, the Academy elects Corresponding and Full Members, as well as External and Honorary Members, the last election being held in May 2019.

According to the Statutes of the Academy, a Hungarian citizen who holds the title of Doctor of the Academy of Sciences or an equivalent scientific degree and who has been recognised as a scientist of particularly high quality and creative work may be elected as a Corresponding Member.

A corresponding member of Hungarian nationality who has achieved significant scientific results since becoming a corresponding member may be elected as a full member.

An external member is a scientist who lives abroad and pursues his/her scientific activities abroad, who cultivates his/her science to an internationally outstanding standard, who professes to be Hungarian and who maintains close contact with Hungarian scientific life.

An honorary member is a scientist living abroad and pursuing his or her scientific activities abroad, who has an internationally outstanding scientific excellence and is held in special esteem by Hungarian science.

The number of Hungarian academics under the age of 70 must not exceed 200, and the total number of Hungarian academics must not exceed 365.

A total of 100 new members were elected from a list of 110 candidates, including 13 women.

The elected Honorary Academy Members include biochemist Katalin Karikó and Thomas C. Südhof, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and neurobiologist (2013).

Karikó, the vice president of BioNTech, which has led research on mRNA-based medicine since the 1990s, has played a major role in developing new vaccination strategies which have been used in the fight against Covid-19. As we wrote before, HBO series comes about Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó and the vaccine, details HERE.