The Presidium of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (LAS), on the basis of the proposals of the expert commissions for LAS Young Scientists' Fellowships of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (LAS), has awarded 15 fellowships to the best young scientists in the fields of humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, biomedicine, technology and agriculture. Six of them were awarded to scientists from Vilnius University (VU), one of them to a VU LSC scientist Dr Inga Songailienė.
In the field of biomedical sciences, the scholarship was awarded to Dr Inga Songailiene, a young VU researcher, who is conducting research on "Investigating the mechanisms of hypothetical bacterial defence systems".
In the field of physical sciences, the LMA Young Scientist Fellowships were awarded to the following VU representatives:
Dr. Anton Popov, who is conducting research on "Surface plasmon resonance-based immune sensors for the detection of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 proteins".
Dr. Julius Vengel, for research on 'Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fibre optics by accumulation of uniformly tunable frequency femtosecond laser radiation'.
In the field of humanities and social sciences, the following VU researchers have been awarded fellowships for 2022-2023:
Dr Odeta Geležėlyte, who is conducting research on "Research on stress-related difficulties and their coping".
Dr. Kristina Jonutyte, conducting research on "Urbanisation and Buddhism in the Post-Soviet Context".
Dr. Gerda Ana Melnik-Leroy, conducting research on 'Cognitive mechanisms of information processing: numerical and linguistic information.
Since 2010, the LMA has been organising the annual LMA Young Scientist Fellowship Competition. Fellowships are awarded to researchers up to 35 years of age who have obtained their PhD degree no earlier than five years before the deadline for applications, to support their current research. Candidates for the scholarship must be working in Lithuanian research and study institutions and have published research articles with a scientific affiliation. The scholarship is equal to 6 basic social benefits and is awarded once a month for one year.
In 2022, 64 applications were submitted to the LMA Young Scientists Scholarship competition: 16 in the humanities and social sciences, 48 in the physical sciences, biomedicine, technology and agricultural sciences.
The applications were evaluated by the LMA's expert committees in the individual fields of science. Three scholarships each were awarded in the humanities and social sciences, physical sciences, biomedical sciences, technology and agricultural sciences. Of these, 6 scholarships were awarded to Vilnius University, 3 to the Lithuanian Centre of Agrarian and Forestry Sciences, 2 each to Kaunas University of Technology and the Lithuanian Energy Institute, and 1 each to the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and the Natural Research Centre.
The winners will carry out their research for 12 months. At the end of the grant period, they will submit reports on the results of their research. After two years, if the report is favourably evaluated, the researcher will be eligible for a second grant to conduct new research. The winners of the Fellowship Competition will be presented with their certificates in September 2022 at the LMA General Assembly.
Photo credit: iGEM 2021