“The Students’ Scientific Association is the university’s most energetic, most vibrant, and potentially most promising association, which the university as a whole must build upon,” Rector Ágoston Szél said during the opening ceremony of this year’s TDK Conference. As he emphasised, he considers it marvellous that, after just a few years as students, young people achieve scientific results worthy of sharing with others and, coming to the conference, experience the very same feelings that they will experience later, as serious researchers stepping onto the podium of an international conference. It is here, in the encouraging academic environment, that they must learn, among other things, that one may get questions one cannot answer, and that care must be taken to comply with certain rules, the rector said. As educators, one of our most important tasks is to teach young people these techniques, he added.
Dr. Ágoston Szél also touched upon the fact that Semmelweis University has been granted the “Research University” qualification for another three years. As he pointed out, one of the aspects that makes Semmelweis University a Research University is that it puts a great deal of effort into talent support programmes: “For the support of talent starts in the scientific life of students, which is why I consider the TDK Conference to be one of the most important events at our University,” he said.
The rector alluded to a notion of Albert Szent-Györgyi’s, which states that discovery consists of seeing what everyone else sees, but thinking what no one else has thought. Furthering this idea, Dr. Ágoston Szél wished for all participants to see lots of things over the course of their research work, and to have many opportunities to experience that, developing upon what they see, they create new scientific results.
Dr. Béla Merkely, president of the TDK Council, related that 331 students submitted abstracts to the TDK Conference, of which 98 percent was accepted by the Council, based on the decision of the professional committees. This ratio indicates an improvement in the quality of the abstracts, he remarked.
He reminded the audience that the city of Szeged will host the National TDK Conference’s Medical and Health Sciences Section in April 2013. The number of talented students delegated by Semmelweis University has tripled compared to previous years; 139 students will represent the University in 40 sections, he said.
Dr. Merkely had chosen a quote from Count István Széchenyi (1791-1860) as the motto of last year’s TDK Conference: “A nation’s true power lies in the number of its scientific people.” This noble thought, formulated 150 years ago, has great meaning in the current state of our higher education, President Merkely stated, adding that he’d include the notion of talent in this formulation as well: talent must not be left alone, talent requires support, fertile soil, attention and freedom in order to grow. “I hope this year’s conference will serve as such fertile soil,” he said.
Following the welcome addresses, Dr. Ágoston Szél and Dr. Béla Merkely presented Outstanding TDK Mentor and Outstanding TDK Student distinctions (see end of article for list). In keeping with tradition, the opening presentation of the conference was held by one of the awardees of the Outstanding TDK Mentor title; Dr. Károly Rácz’s lecture was entitled “On myths and evidence in endocrinology”.
Simultaneously with the traditional TDK Conference, the International TDK Conference was also held for the second time at Semmelweis University.
Pálma Dobozi
Translated by Gina Varga-Gönczi
OUTSTANDING TDK MENTORS
Dr. Mária Gilinger Pankotai (Institute of Applied Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, SE)
Dr. Krisztina Káldi (Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, SE)
Dr. Zsolt Lohinai (Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, SE)
Dr. Ágnes Nemeskéri (Department of Human Morphology and Developmental Biology, Faculty of Medicine, SE)
Dr. Károly Rácz (2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, SE)
OUTSTANDING TDK STUDENTS
Dr. Diána Brauswetter, Faculty of Medicine (Tutors: Dr. Mária Sasvári; Dr. Zsolt Rónai)
Dr. Dániel Csete, Faculty of Medicine (Tutors: Dr. Dávid Győri; Dr. Attila Mócsai)
Dr. Andor Domokos, Faculty of Medicine (Tutors: Dr. Viktor Lajos Varga)
Dr. Edit Gara, Faculty of Medicine (Tutors: Dr. Béla Merkely; Dr. Gábor Földes)
Dr. Vince Kornél Grolmusz, Faculty of Medicine (Tutors: Dr. Károly Rácz; Dr. Péter Reismann; Dr. Attila Patócs)
Attila Heim, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences (Tutors: Dr. Csaba Ökrös)
Dr. Fanni Sára Kálmán, Faculty of Dentistry (Tutors: Dr. Éva Kereszturi; Dr. Miklós Csala)
Dr. Attila Kovács, Faculty of Medicine (Tutors: Dr. Andrea Nagy; Dr. Astrid Apor)
Dr. Zsuzsanna Mihályi, Faculty of Medicine (Tutors: Dr. Balázs Győrffy)
Gábor Schuth, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences (Tutors: Dr. József Tihanyi; Dr. Csaba Ökrös)
Dr. Zsolt Turóczi, Faculty of Medicine (Tutors: Dr. Attila Szíjártó)
2012 AWARD RECIPENTS FOR FIRST-AUTHOR PUBLICATIONS
Anna Bajnok (Dr. Gergely Toldi’s TDK student)
Szonja Kollár (Dr. Gergely Toldi’s TDK student)
Zsófia Janicsek (Dr. Levente Kiss’s TDK student)
Mónika Szepes (Dr. Levente Kiss’s TDK student)
