The award was presented to Prof. Dušan Galusek on 15 October 2026 in Bratislava by Serge Haroche, the 2012 Nobel Prize laureate in Physics, who chaired this year’s international jury. Prof. Galusek was selected as the winner from five finalists in his category, with 15 outstanding scientists nominated across the three award categories.

The ESET Science Award celebrates scientists whose research advances knowledge, raises the international profile of Slovak science and contributes to society. It is an initiative of the ESET Foundation, established in cooperation with ESET, a Slovak technology company best known for its cybersecurity solutions.

‍Exploring new frontiers in materials science

Although Prof. Galusek actively contributes to research projects led by his colleagues, he is currently focusing on two particularly promising research directions.

One is high-entropy oxide materials – materials containing several different components that can form a single stable phase rather than separating into multiple phases. While this concept has been extensively explored in metal alloys, high-entropy oxides remain a less widely studied field. They offer exciting opportunities for fundamental research and potential applications, including thermal barrier coatings for turbines and heat-resistant materials for demanding aerospace applications, such as spacecraft heat shields.

His second research direction explores the low-temperature processing of bioactive glasses using cold sintering. Conventional sintering requires high temperatures, which can cause glass to crystallise and lose some of its bioactivity – a key property for materials designed to interact with living tissue. Cold sintering uses water or aqueous solutions to enable densification at much lower temperatures. Prof. Galusek and his team are investigating whether this approach can be applied to bioactive glasses to produce porous structures for bone implants while preserving their bioactivity.

Both research directions demonstrate how fundamental research into advanced materials can open up new possibilities for future technologies and practical applications.

From ceramics to building an international research centre

Prof. Galusek’s path to science was not entirely straightforward. Although he initially dreamed of studying archaeology, he eventually graduated in inorganic chemistry from the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. He first established his expertise in ceramics before turning his attention to glass research at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

His career also took him to Germany and the United Kingdom before bringing him back to his hometown of Trenčín. In 2017, he founded FunGlass, which has since developed into an internationally connected research centre bringing together scientists, partners and young researchers to advance functional and surface-functionalised glass and related materials.

Connecting scientific excellence with innovation

Prof. Galusek’s scientific leadership and commitment to materials research reflect the importance of connecting scientific excellence with international collaboration, innovation and the development of new technologies.

These priorities are also central to GlaCerHub, a European project coordinated by Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín through FunGlass. The project aims to strengthen the glass and ceramics innovation ecosystem in the Trenčín Region of Slovakia and South Moravia in Czechia by fostering collaboration between research organisations, industry and other stakeholders, supporting knowledge and technology transfer, and creating new opportunities for research-driven innovation.

Prof. Galusek’s achievement provides an opportunity to celebrate not only his individual scientific contributions but also the research expertise and collaborative environment that help strengthen this innovation ecosystem.

A proud moment for our community

We warmly congratulate Prof. Dušan Galusek on this outstanding achievement! His success is a source of pride for the FunGlass team and the wider GlaCerHub community, and an inspiring reminder of how scientific curiosity, perseverance and collaboration can help shape the materials and technologies of the future.

Original source: Linda Kisková Bohušová / ESET Science Award 2026