Prestigious International Awards won by Edit Mátyus

11.07.2023.

Edit Mátyus, associate professor at the ELTE Institute of Chemistry, is the first scientist in the world to have won both the IAQMS Medal and the WATOC Dirac Medal, the two most prestigious awards given to young scientists. Moreover, she earned them with two separate research results. The chemist supervising an ERC research group at ELTE has thus become an internationally renowned scientist in the field of quantum chemistry.

There are two major international awards for scientists under the age of 40 engaged in theoretical and computational chemistry: the IAQMS Medal and the WATOC Dirac Medal. Edit Mátyus is the first researcher in Europe to have won both recognitions, and also the first to have won them with two different research topics. The awardees of the medals are nominated and ballotted by IAQMS members and WATOC board members.

The International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (IAQMS) is a scientific society with nearly 100 members bringing together top scientists in molecular quantum mechanics. Since its establishment in 1967, the society has had 14 Nobel laureates among its members. Every year, the organisation awards a medal to a researcher under the age of 40 for their achievements in the field of theoretical and computational chemistry.

This year’s winner of the IAQMS Medal was announced during the 17^th International Congress of Quantum Chemistry (ICQC) held in Bratislava in June 2023. The prestigious professional association awarded its 2023 Medal to Edit Mátyus for working out theoretical methods of precision spectroscopy and for the theoretical description of molecules exceeding the Born-Oppenheimer and non-relativistic approximations.

The official conferment of the IAQMS Medal awarded this year and the related scientific presentation will take place at the following ICQC to be held in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2026.

At the International Congress of Quantum Chemistry, it was announced that Edit Mátyus received the 2023 IAQMS Medal.

In 2021, the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) awarded the annual Dirac Medal to Edit Mátyus for the method she developed to solve the rovibrational Schrödinger equation of multiatomic molecules and molecular complexes as well as for its application.

The Dirac Medal is awarded annually to a researcher under the age of 40 with outstanding achievements in the field of theoretical and computational chemistry. The official conferment and related scientific presentation will take place at the next WATOC congress in Oslo, in 2025.

The Molecular Quantum Dynamics Research Group in the summer of 2021 (from left to right): Mhykaylo Khoma, Péter Jeszenszki, Alberto Martín Santa Daría, Gustavo Avila, Robbie Ireland, Edit Mátyus, Péter Hollósy, Dávid Ferenc, and Tibor Keresztesi.

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Cover photo: Edit Mátyus at the Lágymányos Campus of ELTE.

For further information on the scientific activities of Edit Mátyus, see the website of her research group.