The Lithuanian Union of Young Scientists has announced and the President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda has awarded the winners of the Best Dissertations 2021 competition. The dissertations of Milda Mickutė and Žana Kapustina (2 of the 10 best dissertations) were written and defended at the Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre.
Dr M. Mickutė defended her dissertation entitled "Application of single-stranded small RNA-modifying animal Hen1 methyltransferases for RNA labelling and sequencing" (Biochemistry). Her scientific advisor is Prof. Dr. Giedrius Vilkaitis.
Dr Ž. Kapustina's thesis topic "Application of Modified Nucleotides for Large-Scale Analysis of Nucleic Acids" (Biology) was defended at the Institute of Biosciences of the VU GMC and at the Research and Experimental Development Centre of UAB "Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics". Its scientific supervisor is prof. dr. Arvydas Lubys.
A total of 104 dissertations were submitted to the competition: 57 in the fields of science, technology, medicine and health, and agriculture, and 47 in the humanities and social sciences. Phases I and II of the evaluation of the dissertations took place from 31 March to 15 November this year. 260 experts assessed the theses. They recognised as laureates the 10 best dissertations defended in Lithuanian research and study institutions and 2 dissertations of Lithuanian citizens defended in foreign research and study institutions.
The aim of the "Best Dissertation" competition is to encourage PhD students to prepare high quality scientific dissertations that would be recognised not only in Lithuania but also worldwide, to encourage inter-institutional and interdisciplinary cooperation, and to increase the motivation of young Lithuanian scientists to carry out scientific activities of the highest quality and importance to society.