The Tibor Hortobágyi Research Impact Award is a prestigious prize for PhD researchers, named after Professor Tibor Hortobágyi. He worked for 12 years as Professor of Healthy Ageing in the Department of Human Movement Sciences and established the award almost six years ago to support young talent. The prize, worth €2,000, rewards PhD research with significant scientific and societal impact within the field of Human Movement Sciences.
This year, the award was won on 28 October by Lu Yang, a PhD candidate at Human Movement Sciences. The jury selected her from four candidates because of the high impact of her work, which was presented during a short pitch. In her PhD project, Lu Yang investigates how physical activity at a young age influences long-term mental health and how this interacts with genetic risk factors for mental disorders. Her work emphasises the role of exercise in prevention and treatment, with direct applications for public health.
