The prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Slovakia program honors exceptional female researchers. The program’s 10th anniversary brought extraordinary success to Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice: two female scientists working at UPJŠ in Košice were among this year’s three laureates. The expert jury awarded this prestigious honor to important research projects that are pushing the boundaries of modern science and medicine. Each laureate received financial support in the amount of 7,000€ for her professional and personal development.
Successful female researchers from UPJŠ in Košice:
RNDr. Ivana Šišoláková, PhD. associate professor,
laureate in the engineering sciences and technology category,
Institute of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science, UPJŠ
Our researcher, assoc. prof. Šišoláková, has successfully developed portable electrochemical sensors capable of identifying toxic substances in cases of suspected animal poisoning directly in a veterinary clinic. Her research reduces diagnostic time from several days to a few tens of seconds and significantly lowers costs. This innovative approach has the potential to be used in detecting other substances in both veterinary and human medicine.
doc. PharmDr. Radka Michalková, PhD.,
laureate in the category of Live Nature and Environmental Sciences,
Institute of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, UPJŠ
Doc. Michalková received the award for her research on the most aggressive brain tumor in adults. She is investigating anticancer agents derived from natural compounds and the possibilities for their targeted delivery to tumor cells using biocompatible nanoparticles. She tests the effects of these agents on 3D models of glioblastoma that mimic real tumor tissue. The findings could lead to more effective treatment options for this serious disease.
Women make up 40% of researchers in Slovakia today; however, according to UNESCO data, their representation has decreased by 6.3% compared to 2013. “The numbers show that the need to support women in science has not disappeared. We want them to have the opportunity to conduct high-quality research and for their results to be visible beyond the academic community,” said Ivona Karvinen, spokesperson for the program in the Czech Republic and Slovakia at L’Oréal. The L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science program is implemented in collaboration with the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), the Slovak Organization for Research and Development Activities (SOVVA), and the Slovak National Commission for UNESCO. Over the ten years of its existence in Slovakia, the program has honored 25 exceptional female scientists with a total of 133,000€ in funding.
We congratulate our laureates and wish them many more successes in their scientific work!
Photos: L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Slovakia 2026
