On 8 September 2025, a ceremony was held in the lecture hall of the Institute of Virology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (BMC SAV) to present congratulatory letters to sixteen prominent members of the Slovak Academy of Sciences who are celebrating significant birthdays this year. The awards were presented by Martin Venhart, President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, who emphasised the importance of scientific work in today’s society in his speech.
Presenter Juraj Turis praised the invisible but indispensable work of scientists who make the world a better place. Historian Eva Kowalská gave an acceptance speech in which she emphasised the importance of recognising scientific contributions at a time when science is often called into question.
The awardees came from various fields, from geology, physics, astronomy, computer science, botany, zoology and parasitology to history and ethnology. Among them were Dr Milada Čiamporová and Dr Pavel Lizoň from the Botanical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, whose scientific contributions were particularly highlighted.
Dr Milada Čiamporová was born in Bratislava on 6 December 1945. After finishing school, she got a job as a technical assistant at the then Institute of Biology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where she was attracted by the work in the laboratory of Dr Mária Luxová.
Her interest in learning more about plants led her to study biology and chemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava. After graduating, she began her postgraduate studies with Dr Mária Luxová at the newly established Institute of Botany of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, which became her lifelong work. As part of her scientific work, she focussed on the fascinating world of the submicroscopic structure of plant cells using electron microscopic methods. In addition to documenting changes in cells during their differentiation, she focussed in particular on the reactions of cells to various types of abiotic stress factors. The result of her scientific work is almost 100 published scientific papers.
She was awarded the Holuby Medal of the Slovak Botanical Society in 1992 and the Silver Plaque of the Slovak Academy of Sciences for services to biological sciences in 1996. She is an honorary member of the Slovak Botanical Society and a permanent member of the Czech-Slovak Society for Microscopy. An important contribution to our work is also the tradition of the international symposia “Structure and Function of Roots”, in the organisation of which she participated with great enthusiasm.
An important part of Dr Čiamporová’s work was the close cooperation with the “Cell Imaging and Ultrastructure Research” department of the University of Vienna, which, in addition to the mutual exchange of theoretical knowledge and practical experience, also enabled us to use the equipment at the partner workplace. In addition to her scientific work, she was head of the Department of Plant Structure (1989–1993) and head of the Department of Plant Physiology (1994–1997). From 1990–2008 she was scientific secretary of the Institute of Botany of the SAS. Last but not least, her personality must be emphasised from a human point of view, with which she always contributed to a good atmosphere in the workplace, for which she deserves respect and admiration.
Dr Pavel Lizoň was born on 2 October 1945 in Trenčín. He studied at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava and at Charles University in Prague, where he was awarded the title of RNDr in 1973. He defended his scientific title CSc. in 1992 at the Institute of Botany of SAS. He devoted his entire life to mycology – first at the Natural History Museum of the Slovak National Museum (1968–1992), where he managed mycological collections and headed the botanical department.
His career took on a significant international dimension in the years 1992–1998, when he worked as a research assistant at Cornell University in the USA. The collaboration with Prof Korf brought new perspectives for the systematics of the Helotiales and Leotiales families. After his return to Slovakia, he worked as an independent researcher at the Institute of Botany of the Slovak Academy of Sciences until his retirement. He published 7 monographs, 26 book chapters, 38 WOS articles and a total of 194 scientific articles in Slovakia and abroad. He described 15 new species of fungi, contributed significantly to the amendment of the decree of the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic and to the preparation of the Red List of Fungi and was the national coordinator of the European mapping of endangered species. He was a member of several scientific societies and commissions and headed the Slovak Mycological Society at the Slovak Academy of Sciences for fourteen years. He held positions in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and the IAPT (International Association for Plant Taxonomy) and was editor-in-chief of the renowned journal Mycotaxon (1998–2003, Ithaca, USA). Until 2015, he was also editor of the journals Spravodajca Slovenskej mykologickej spoločnosť and Catathelasma. Dr Lizoň was a long-standing member of scientific and evaluation bodies, including the Assembly of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (2005–2013), VEGA Commission No. 4 (2008–2012) and the Scientific Council of the Institute of Botany of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He trained diploma and doctoral students. He has received several awards for his work, including honorary membership of the Czechoslovak Mycological Society (1982), the title of honorary trustee of Cornell University (1996–1998) and prestigious scholarships from the Mycological Society of America.
