Each year, the ESET Science Award honors individuals whose scientific and research work makes a significant contribution to the advancement of science and society. The gala ceremony, held on October 15 to present this year’s laureates, marked the culmination of the eighth annual awards. The event was themed “The Responsibility of Knowledge,” which serves as a reminder that the discovery, dissemination, and application of new knowledge also entail a responsibility for its impact on people, society, and the world in which we live.
The 2026 Outstanding Scientist in Slovakia is Professor Dušan Galusek, who heads the FunGlass Center at Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, the largest academic research facility focused on glass in Europe, with over 120 people from more than 20 countries. His team is developing technology to sort waste glass based on its chemical composition, which could also aid in the recycling of medical glass. He has also developed a new type of reference material for the chemical analysis of rocks with high lithium or uranium content. He himself focuses primarily on high-entropy oxide materials with potential applications, for example, in thermal barrier coatings and the preparation of bioactive glasses using the cold sintering method, which should preserve their therapeutic activity in the production of bone implants.
In the category “Outstanding Scientist Under 35,” the laureate is Marián Janík,an expert in quantum electronics from the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he is engaged in the development of technologies for quantum computers. His research focuses primarily on quantum dots - nanoscale devices capable of trapping and controlling a single electron. Using modeling and simulations, he seeks the optimal design of quantum dots for spin qubits. He completed his doctoral studies at the prestigious Austrian institute ISTA. Despite a promising career abroad, he decided to return to Slovakia. His ambition is to build a world-class research group in Slovakia that, in addition to scientific results, will also emphasize the personal growth of young scientists. He believes that only a satisfied scientist can be a productive one.
The award in the category “Outstanding Academic” went to Iveta Waczulíková,a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics at Comenius University in Bratislava. She is the guarantor of the Biomedical Physics program, which bridges physics and medicine. Her research focuses on the biophysical properties of living systems, particularly cellular energy metabolism, blood properties, and the function of the vascular endothelium in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. In her teaching, she emphasizes linking theoretical knowledge with practical research and guides students toward independent thinking, working with uncertainty, and the responsible interpretation of scientific data.
Pavol Čekan, founder and CEO of the biotechnology company MultiplexDX, received the Public Choice Award, having received 20,223 votes from the public out of a total of 31,095 valid votes. His team developed the Multiplex8+ diagnostic test for breast cancer, which combines imaging, laser microdissection, and RNA biomarker sequencing to assemble signatures that predict how a patient will respond to treatment. This year, his team completed an international study involving 590 patients with the most aggressive subtype of breast cancer and is launching a prospective study across nine countries.
The laureates in the categories “Outstanding Scientist in Slovakia” and “Outstanding Scientist Under 35” were selected by an international jury composed of renowned scientists from various scientific fields. The jury was chaired by Serge Haroche, a French physicist and recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, which he received for groundbreaking experimental methods enabling the measurement and control of individual quantum systems.
Other members of the jury included Samuel Bernard (materials chemistry), Marjolein de Jong (medicine and care for breast cancer patients), Pavel Hobza (theoretical chemistry), Dominique Joye (sociology), Shelley McKeown Jones (social psychology), Silvia Ramundo (molecular biology), and Jean-Robert Tyran (economics). The laureate in the Outstanding Academic category was selected by representatives of Slovak universities.
“Chairing the international jury for the ESET Science Award allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the work of scientists in Slovakia. I was impressed by the high caliber and diversity of the fields in which the finalists are engaged. Their work proves that the quality of science does not depend on the size of a country, but on good ideas, perseverance, and the courage to discover new things. In selecting the laureates, we took into account not only scientific results but also the contribution of their work to society. Scientific progress is truly meaningful when new discoveries help us better understand the world and improve people’s lives. However, for science to advance, it needs long-term support. That is why I consider initiatives such as the ESET Science Award to be exceptionally important. I warmly congratulate all the laureates, and recognition is also due to all the finalists,” says Serge Haroche, chair of the international jury for the 2026 ESET Science Award.
