The Adam Kondorosi Academia Europaea Award #
Recognizes landmark research in symbiosis and related fields that has changed our understanding and made a significant scientific impact.#
The awards are given in two categories:#
- “The Adam Kondorosi Academia Europaea Award for Early-Career Investigators” recognizes young scholars making an outstanding scientific contribution in the field of nitrogen fixation, plant biology and microbiology related to symbiosis. The first such award was presented to Simona Radutoiu, Aarhus University, Denmark, at the biannual European Nitrogen Fixation Conference, held on the 12th conference in Budapest 2016.
- “The Adam Kondorosi Academia Europaea Award for Advanced Research” recognizes revolutionary discoveries in symbiosis and related fields. It was presented at the Academia Europaea-ALLEA –YAE joint conference for the first time in September 2017 to Professor Allan Downie John Innes Centre, UK, for his work on Rhizobium-legume interactions.
The awards consist of a diploma/medal and prize money. This prize was established in recognition of the significant achievements made in the field of plant and microbe interactions and symbiotic nitrogen fixation by the late Professor Adam Kondorosi.
The Adam Kondorosi Academia Europaea Award
for Advanced Research 2025#
The award will be presented on August 29th, 2025
at the 16th European Nitrogen Fixation Conference
Andrew Wiles Building
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
to
Professor Jens STOUGAARD MAE (Aarhus University, Denmark)#
Professor STOUGAARD will deliver the 2025 Adam Kondorosi Lecture:
“Genetics of nitrogen-fixing root nodules in legumes”#
The laudation will be given by Dr. Luis Rubio MAE, Spain
“The Adam Kondorosi Academia Europaea Award for Advanced Research” recognizes landmark research in symbiosis and related fields that has changed our understanding and made a significant scientific impact.
The awards consist of a diploma/medal and prize money. This prize was established in recognition of the significant achievements made in the field of plant and microbe interactions and symbiotic nitrogen fixation by the late Professor Adam Kondorosi.
Members of the Award Committee:
- Eva Kondorosi, Academia Europaea
- Sharon Long, Stanford University
- Graham O’Hara, Murdoch University
- Klaus Palme, Academia Europaea
- Ray Dixon, Academia Europaea
- Simona Radutoiu, ENFC Board
- Peter Mergaert, ENFC Board
- Luis Rubio, ENFC president (Chair)
Medal Citation#
Professor Jens Stougaard MAE receives the Adam Kondorosi Academia Europaea Award for Advanced Research 2025 in recognition of exceptional contributions and groundbreaking advances in symbiotic nitrogen fixation and the identification of molecular mechanisms for perception of bacterial signalling molecules.
TITLE AND FULL NAME: Professor Jens STOUGAARD
AFFILIATION: Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University
LINK TO WEBPAGE:
https://mbg.au.dk/forskning/forskningsomraader/plantemolekylaerbiologi
https://mbg.au.dk/forskning/forskningsomraader/plantemolekylaerbiologi/jens-stougaard
TITLE OF PRESENTATION: Genetics of nitrogen-fixing root nodules in legumes
ABSTRACT OF PRESENTATION:
Legumes form endosymbioses with rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, host endophytes, support a rhizosphere community and like other plants they are attacked by pathogens. One of the features enabling legumes to distinguish between these very different microbes appears to be a large family of LysM receptor kinases monitoring microbial signals. LysM receptor kinases have been shown to play a crucial role for perception of rhizobial Nod factors while others have not been studied. The function of some of these receptors in perception of signal molecules including lipochito-oligosaccharides, exopolysaccharides and chitin derived signal molecules and in plant-microbe interaction will be presented together with the genetic and biochemical methods used for functional studies. Capturing the dynamics of plant-microbe interactions over time and over scales and relating the observations to genetic programs and environmental conditions regulating the processes has been a major scientific challenge for the plant-microbe community. Expanding synchotron-based X-ray tomographic methodology and instrumentation to image microbial infection of intact solid plant tissues in 3-D holds promise to establish fast, non-destructive, quantitative spatial 3D volumes of microbial infection and colonization of plant tissues. Approaches to establish such synchotron-based X-ray tomography will be presented.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:
Professor Stougaard holds a master’s degree in agronomy from University in Copenhagen and a PhD from the University of Sussex, Great Britain. As a postdoc, he joined the Department of Molecular Biology at Aarhus University, Denmark, where he established his research group focusing on interactions between plants and microorganisms. One of the early achievements was to establish the legume Lotus japonicus, a relative of Bird´s-foot trefoil, as a model organism for rhizobial symbiosis and develop genetic and genomic tools for legume research. Taking advantage of the advantageous features of this model system he identified and characterized genes that enable legumes to establish symbiosis with the soil bacterium Rhizobium. This opened the research field and provided fundamental discoveries and insight into the mechanisms of nitrogen fixation in legumes. Following this line of basic research, a more strategic line exploring the potential of crop biotechnology in the green transition was initiated with a focus on legume crops as a source of food and protein.
Past winners#
The award was presented to Prof. Udvardi on 10th October 2023 at the annual conference of the Academia Europaea in Munich.
Award Lecture: The Wonderful World of Mycorrhizal Symbiosis
The laudation was given by Eva Kondorosi MAE, Hungary.
Award Lecture: Engineering Biological Nitrogen Fixation for Agricultural Benefit
The laudation was given by Jens Stougaard MAE, Aarhus. The award was presented to Ray Dixon on Thursday 24 October 2019, at the Academia Europaea annual conference in Barcelona.
Award Lecture: Symbiotic nitrogen fixation: a paradigm for inter-kingdom signalling.
The laudation was given by Jens Stougaard MAE, Aarhus. The award was presented to Professor Allan Downie on Tuesday 5th September 2017, at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.
2016 Simona Radutoiu.
The first Adam Kondorosi award was presented to Simona Radutoiu, Aarhus University, Denmark, at the biannual European Nitrogen Fixation Conference, held on the 12th conference in Budapest 2016.
- Eva Kondorosi, Academia Europaea
- Sharon Long, Stanford University
- Graham O’Hara, Murdoch University
- Klaus Palme, Academia Europaea
- Ray Dixon, Academia Europaea
- Simona Radutoiu, ENFC Board
- Peter Mergaert, ENFC Board
- Luis Rubio, ENFC president
Members of the Award Committee (2017-2022):
- Jens Stougaard, ENFC president (chairman)
- Eva Kondorosi, ENFC board
- Sharon Long, Stanford University
- Graham O´Hara, Murdoch University
- Klaus Palme, Academia Europaea
- Mart Saarma, Academia Europaea
- Luis M. Rubio, ENFC board
