Éva Kondorosi, (born 1948) is a Hungarian-French biochemist who is known for her work on

Rhizobium ''Rhizobium'' is a genus of Gram-negative soil bacteria that fix nitrogen. ''Rhizobium'' species form an endosymbiotic nitrogen-fixing association with roots of (primarily) legumes and other flowering plants. The bacteria colonize plant ce ...

-legume symbiosis. She has been a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

since 2010. In 2015 she became a member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

Biography

Education

Éva Kondorosi was born in 1948 in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary. She studied biology at the Faculty of Sciences in Budapest and later she earned a doctorate in genetics at the Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest.

Career

In 1973, Kondorosi joined the Biology Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged. As a young researcher, she continued her training and completed several internships abroad at: University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, Harvard and Cornell Universities in the United States, and the Max-Planck Society in Germany between 1973 and 1986. In 1989, she settled in France and joined the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) as a research director at the Institute of Plant Sciences in Gif-sur-Yvette. Since March 2013, she has been

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

research director of the CNRS. She obtained French nationality in 1995. She has played a leading role in scientific collaboration between France and Hungary. Throughout her career in France, she maintained close ties with her home institution, the

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

laboratory. This allowed for collaboration between the Gif-sur-Yvette laboratory and the Szeged laboratory. As a result, the two institutions were twinned through the creation of the BAYGEN Institute (2007–2012), which is now an integral part of the Biology Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged. Currently, she works at the Biology Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged and heads the Symbiosis Laboratory and the Functional Genomics Unit. Kondorosi is a member and corresponding member of several academies, including the National Academy of Sciences in the United States and the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

. She is a member of the Scientific Council, the European Research Council, and the European Molecular Biology Organization. She serves on the board of the International Society for Plant-Microbe Molecular Interactions (IS-MPMI). She helped launch UNESCO's Women in Science program and was a member of the international jury for the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards. Between 2020 and 2025, Kondorosi served as a Chief Scientific Advisor to the European Commission.

Research

Kondorosi is recognized for her work in the study of

- legume symbiosis, in particular for the discovery and characterization of a series of cysteine-rich nodule peptides that are important signaling molecules. Her research findings on cell cycle regulation during symbiosis, on the differentiation of Bacteroides, and on the production of peptides with antimicrobial activity have earned her international recognition. The plant responds to the presence of Rhizobium by creating nodules on the roots, in which the bacteria grow. The bacteria in the nodules are able to transform nitrogen from the air into a form that can be used by the plant, thus providing an essential nutrient, often scarce in the environment. Beyond the importance of its contribution to basic science, a better understanding of nitrogen fixation is crucial for food security and for reducing society's dependence on fertilizers, which are energy-intensive and whose production is a major source of greenhouse gases. His current research focuses on the dual use of strategies used naturally by plants in agriculture and public health.

Personal life

Andor Tarnai, the late father of Éva Kondorosi, was a Hungarian writer and a literary historian. She was married to Ádám Kondorosi, a Hungarian biologist.

Distinctions and awards

* 2022: Best Molecular Biology Scientists, Research.com * 2019: Prix de la Ville de Szeged * 2018: Balzan Prize for Chemical Ecology * 2017: Grand prix de la Fondation Szeged * 2012: Hungarian Széchenyi Prize for outstanding scientific contribution * 2012: International Society for Plant-Microbe Molecular Interactions (IS-MPMI) Award * 2011: Prix de Szeged * 2011: Biology Research Prize * 2007: Hotchkiss Award * 1985: Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kondorosi, Eva Hungarian women scientists French women scientists Hungarian biochemists French biochemists Women biochemists Living people Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 1948 births