All young scientist awards of the Cultural Foundation of the President of the Republic went to University of Tartu researchers

On 23 May in Kadriorg, Tallinn, President Alar Karis presented the Young Scientist Award, the Young Environmental Scientist Award and the Young IT Scientist Award of the Cultural Foundation of the President of the Republic. All three awards went to outstanding young researchers of the University of Tartu. 

At the ceremony, President Alar Karis said that something all laureates have in common is that they use innovative techniques and approaches in their field. "The results of all this are tangible in society: smarter medicine and a cleaner environment," said the President. According to President Karis, research is not done for the sake of awards, but any recognition can be taken as a sign that the chosen direction is the right one and that the research the person is doing is valuable to society. He expressed hope that today's laureates will inspire other young people to choose the path of research and show the entire society why Estonia needs its own top-level research.  

Laureate of the Young Scientist Award, teaching physician in orthopaedics at Tartu University Hospital and Research Fellow in Orthopaedics at the Institute of Clinical Medicine Kaspar Tootsi, explores innovative solutions for the treatment of orthopaedic diseases, in particular osteoarthritis. He has found that osteoarthritis does not just damage the joint but the whole organism systemically, and is now studying the effects of joint replacement on the whole body. See the video of the laurate giving an overview of his research.

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Laureate of the Young Environmental Scientist Award is Associate Professor in Ecotechnology Kuno Kasak, whose research focuses on carbon cycle processes in restored wetlands. He has shown that 'carbon farms', which have a very high carbon sequestration capacity, are great for restoring cut-over peatlands damaged by peat extraction. See the video of the laurate giving an overview of his research.

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Laureate of the Young IT Scientist Award, Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence Dmytro Fishman, focuses on training artificial intelligence models to analyse biomedical imaging data. Fishman's start-up Better Medicine OÜ is developing general-purpose medical artificial intelligence. See the video of the laurate giving an overview of his research.

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Congratulations to all laureates of the young scientist awards! 

The awards are meant for people up to the age of 35 doing research at an Estonian or foreign research institution or university. The amount of each award is 5,000 euros. The Young Scientist Award is sponsored by Väino Kaldoja, the Young IT Scientist Award by Microsoft Development Center Estonia, and the Young Environmental Scientist Award by Chocolala OÜ.