Hegyi, Eszter

Eszter Hegyi is a senior lecturer and research associate at the University of Pécs Medical School, Institute for Translational Medicine. She received her medical and Ph.D. degree at Comenius University, Faculty of Medicine in Bratislava. During her doctoral studies, and later as a postdoctoral researcher, she spent three years at Boston University in the United States. Her research training and interests have focused on identifying genetic risk factors for chronic pancreatitis and studying the effect of mutations associated with the disease. She has published 30 scientific articles so far, of which 14 are first or last authored. Her cumulative impact factor is ~175. As a leading researcher, she was supported by the National Pancreas Foundation (2016), the International Visegrad Fund (2017), the MTA Premium Postdoctoral Research Programme (2019) and the “OTKA” young researchers´ excellence programme (2022). She is a recipient of the American Pancreatic Association Young Researcher Award (2018), the European Gastroenterology Week (UEGW) National Researcher Award (2018) and the János Bolyai Research Scholarship (2023). At the University of Pécs, she is involved in graduate teaching, supervises diploma theses as well as three Ph.D. students. She was a member of the Hungarian Society of Gastroenterology Research Forum Council Member (2018–2023) and has been a member of the European Pancreatic Club – General Councillor representing Basic and Translational Science (2024–2027). She regularly acts as a reviewer for gastroenterology themed journals, and between 2021–2023, she was a member of the NKFIH Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry expert group. She is married with two children.