Podium finishers at the world competition, scholarship recipients at the university

Rector Zoltán Szilvássy has awarded a two-year research scholarship to the three foreign students who represented the University of Debrecen at this year's Hackatom world competition in nuclear medicine. After winning the Hungarian round, two of them took part in the world finals, where they achieved great success, finishing in third place.

The team called IsotopeX, consisting of students from the Faculty of Health Sciences, had already proven themselves in the Hungarian finals, with the trio from the Philippines, Morocco, and Pakistan—Sophia Palma, Mahnoor Riaz, and Jomana Ben Khadra—finishing at the top and winning the right to compete in the world finals.

In Moscow, at the finale held on the closing day of the World Atomic Week program series and international forum, IsotopeX competed in the Mahnoor Riaz-Sophia Palma combination and, thanks to its outstanding performance, achieved extraordinary success, finishing third in the world finals.

Mahnoor Riaz and Sophia Palma presented a task related to the application of nuclear energy in space exploration, creating a nuclear energy source that monitors the fluid retention and other vital functions of sleeping astronauts during space travel.

Rector Zoltán Szilvássy personally congratulated the talented students, two of whom were able to attend the ceremony.

For their world-class achievement, the head of the institution offered all three students a two-year scholarship. Mahnoor Riaz, Sophia Palma, and Jomana Ben Khadra will be joining the research work of the Department of Nuclear Medicine starting this academic year.