During a gala evening at the Nová Scéna Theatre, the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava honored its best educators and researchers of the past year.
The gala evening opened with an address by STU Rector Maximilián Strémy. In his words, the event is meant to celebrate knowledge, creativity, perseverance, and talent, while serving as a reminder that the most decisive element of the university is, above all, its people – high-quality and passionate teachers and researchers whose work pushes the boundaries of knowledge and passes on experience to future generations of engineers.
"Being an educator at a technical university today means much more than just lecturing. It requires knowing how to engage and motivate students, guiding them toward critical thinking, developing their creativity, and preparing them for a world that is changing faster than ever. Being a researcher, on the other hand, means having the courage to seek innovative solutions, asking challenging questions, and not giving up even when the path to a result is long, demanding, and accompanied by stumbles or failures," said the Rector, adding that the presented awards represent an expression of respect and recognition for systematic work, professional excellence, a creative approach, and personal contribution to the Slovak University of Technology.
The Teacher of the Year 2025 Award
is presented to university teachers who have made extraordinary contributions to the development of education, achieved outstanding results in educational activities, introduced innovative approaches into the learning process, demonstrate an excellent approach to students, and contributed to the development of the faculty and its promotion to the public.
At our faculty, the highest number of votes was received by Mgr. Dávid Pancza, PhD., from the Institute of Computer Science and Mathematics at FEI STU.
Rector's Award for Extraordinary Results in Educational Activities for the Year 2025
is presented to university teachers who have made extraordinary contributions to the building and development of STU and the development of education, achieved outstanding and significant results in educational activities, contributed to the development of STU and its promotion to the public, and contributed to cooperation with other universities and institutions at home and abroad.
From our faculty, the 2025 award was received by doc. Ing. Richard Balogh, PhD., from the Institute of Automotive Mechatronics at FEI STU.
Rector's Award for the Best Publications
is presented for publishing in top-tier and high-impact journals.
In the category "Publications in Journals from the NATURE or SCIENCE Publishing Portfolios" for the year 2025, the award is granted to the author collective consisting of:
Vladimír Kršjak, Yamin Song, Stanislav Sojak, Martin Petriska, Branislav Stríbrnský, Vladimír Slugeň, Jarmila Degmová, and Sofia Gašparová from FEI STU and Pavol Noga, Dušan Vaňa, and Matej Kubiš from MTF STU, for the article "Understanding early-stage radiation damage in nuclear alloys through positron annihilation and semi-empirical modeling".
The Significant Scientific Contribution Award
was received by the FEI STU research team under the leadership of doc. Ing. Juraj Marek, PhD., consisting of:
prof. Ing. Martin Weis, DrSc., Ing. Krisztián Gašparek, PhD., Ing. Michal Hanic, PhD., , Ing. Jozef Kozárik, PhD., Ing. Michal Mičjan, PhD., Ing. Juraj Nevřela, PhD., Ing. Miroslav Novota, PhD., Ing. Vratislav Režo, PhD., Ing. Robert Szobolovszký, PhD., Ing. Tomáš Vincze, PhD., Ing. Ľuboš Černaj, Ing. Tomáš Debnár a Ing. Richard Gašparek, Ing. Ondrej Kokavec.
We congratulate all the awardees and thank them for their dedicated work, professional excellence, and tireless contribution to education, science, and the development of our faculty and university!
Foto: Filip Izrael
5.6.2026
