News

An associate professor from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management of the University of Debrecen (UD MÉK) has become the first Hungarian researcher to visit Bouvet Island, which is part of the Norwegian Antarctic Territory. As a member of an international scientific expedition, László Radócz spent two weeks on the glacier-covered island that has seen less than 200 visitors so far, fewer than outer space has.

A cooperation agreement was signed on Thursday, March 26, by the leaders of the University of Debrecen and those of the Education University of Hong Kong in order to launch faculty and student exchanges as well as joint research projects in the future. The significance of this agreement is also indicated by the fact that UD is the first Hungarian university with which the institution located in the Far East has signed such an agreement on the basis of successful preliminary negotiations.

Kazakh students were invited for an afternoon tea and snacks on Monday to the unique community space called Turkic Corner at the University of Debrecen. In the upcoming weeks, this special meeting place is also scheduled to host young people enrolled at UD from other Asian countries, such as Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

After spending almost two hundred and three days in space and orbiting the Earth more than thirty-two hundred times, samples from Hungary’s first space plant experiment, called VITAPRIC program, have returned from the International Space Station (ISS) to Debrecen. The researchers of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management at the University of Debrecen received the experimental materials for their current scientific project from astronaut Tibor Kapu on Monday at UD’s Biodrome, home to the space plant experiment program named HUNOR and the “birthplace” of our university’s space peppers. For the experts in Debrecen, this marked the beginning of a new phase in their research activities.

An international academic conference was hosted on March 6 and 7 in the Sándor Karácsony Hall of our Main Building by Memoria Hungariae Research Group and Hungarian-Dutch Relations Research Group of the University of Debrecen (UD) under the title “Relations of the Low Countries from the Middle Ages to the Present.” Apart from representatives of Hungarian institutions of higher education and public collections, there were also participants attending the conference from the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

At present, there is a group of young Uzbek pharmacists participating in an internship at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Debrecen. These visitors from Central Asia are currently familiarizing themselves with the scientific work conducted here in Debrecen, gaining insight into state-of-the-art laboratory methods, taking part in current research projects and conducting studies related to their own research topics.

Andrea Nagy has become the recipient of a prestigious award in recognition of her exceptional commitment to promoting French language and culture. The head of the French Department within the Institute of Mediterranean Languages and Cultures at the Faculty of Humanities (BTK) of the University of Debrecen (UD) has received the Knight’s Cross of the French Order of Academic Palms (Ordre des Palmes académiques) from Ambassador Jonathan Lacôte at a ceremony held in the French Ambassador’s Residence in Budapest.

The Confucius Institute (CI) affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities (BTK) at the University of Debrecen (UD) marked the end of the Chinese lunar year, the passing of winter and the beginning of the Year of the Fire Horse with music, dance and singing performances in collaboration with OTT-Home International Meeting Point. Their joint Chinese Lantern Festival, held for the second time in 2026, attracted a record number of visitors on February 28 in the pedestrian street Batthyány utca, located in downtown Debrecen and festooned with red lanterns for the occasion.

A recent examination related to special immune cells in the placenta conducted by research scientists at the University of Debrecen could contribute to a more profound understanding of processes and complications during pregnancy and, in the long run, even to the development of new therapeutic options. It was this group of scientists in Debrecen that were the first to provide a comprehensive genetic picture of the so-called Hofbauer cells. The findings of their international collaborative research project were published in the prestigious international journal JCI Insight.

The Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management of the University of Debrecen has created the Centre for Regional Border Wildlife Monitoring to assess, monitor and preserve the values of wildlife along the Romanian-Hungarian border. Experts from UD and the University of Life Sciences “King Michael I” of Timișoara are working together in the project, which is implemented within the framework of the Interreg VI-A Romania-Hungary Programme.