Opening the 2019 FNR Awards Ceremony, FNR Secretary General Marc Schiltz reflected on the past 20 years of research in Luxembourg, and the opportunities and challenges ahead in the next 20 years.

Listen to Marc Schiltz's full speech below [English part only]

"Public research in Luxembourg is a rapidly expanding field. Congratulations to tonight's awardees, you are proof of the quality of research & science communication in Luxembourg"

In his speech, Minister for Higher Education and Research, Claude Meisch, welcomed initiatives such as the FNR Awards and the Science Festival, which have undoubtedly contributed significantly to forging a positive image of public research. He also recalled the role of ambassador that the award winners can play for Luxembourg research.

The FNR Awards Ceremony was hosted by Olivier Catani, presenter at RTL Luxembourg - you may recognise him from the PISA show with the FNR's Mr Science!

Riccardo worked on thermodynamic descriptions for the stochastic and chemical processes in small complex living organisms like cells.

The majority of biological processes happen far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Assessing their thermodynamic cost and dissipation is important to understand their fundamental working principles.

His PhD makes fundamental contributions to the field of thermodynamics lays the the foundation to better understand processes such as metabolic pathways or gene expression in biological cells.

The jury selected this thesis for the following reasons:

- Both the depth and breadth of this thesis are exceptional.

- The results are groundbreaking and highly original, as stochastic thermodynamics was mainly limited to physical problems so far. They offer the theoretical framework for future investigations of energy conversion and information processing in small living systems like biological cells. They are therefore of high significance and potential.

Linda wrote a PhD thesis on the colonisation of the human gut microbiome in newborns.

She compared babies born by vaginal birth and Cesarian section and observed differences in how the developing immune system is stimulated between the two groups of babies.

Babies born by C-section have a statistically higher risk to develop chronic immune disorders later in life.

Linda Wampach’s results are therefore of high interest for those working on innovative intervention studies that aim to restore an early ‘natural’ colonization and immune stimulation in babies born by C-section.

The jury selected this thesis for the following reason:

- The results are highly relevant and have advanced the research field on the establishment of the neonatal microbiome both from a biological point of view but also from a technical point of view.

Antonio del Sola Mesa [pictured] and Satoshi Okawa wrote a paper about a computational tool that helps stem cell researchers with the conversion of cell subtypes.

They propose a computational tool that can help to identify the key genes necessary to convert one cell subtype into another, something researchers currently struggle to do.

This computational tool is highly relevant in stem cell research and regenerative medicine.

The jury selected this paper for the following reasons:

Eva Lagunas, Shree Krishna Sharma, Sina Maleki, Symeon Chatzinotas, and Björn Ottersten wrote a paper about optimising the radio spectrum use between satellite and terrestrial communication systems.

The publication presents a new idea to tackle the problem of the lack of available unlicensed radio spectrum.

Together with the increasing spectrum demand by multimedia applications, this has resulted in a spectrum scarcity problem, which affects both satellite and terrestrial communications.

The authors proposed a scenario and techniques where the satellite system shares the spectrum with the terrestrial frequency bands.

The Fondation Jeunes Scientifiques organises the national young scientist contest every year since 1971.

In 2018 around 55 young people participated in the contest, resulting in 30 scientific projects.

All participants are rewarded with the participation in an international science competition or get the chance to participate in traineeships or scientific expositions in Europe.

The 'Science Quest' was organised by the communication team of the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and the Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL)

The Science Quest was a large escape-room-style science-promoting event aiming to present the institutes’ biomedical research activities to a lay audience in an unconventional and entertaining way. Over 300 people participated.