Orsolya Valkó - Curriculum Vitae#

Orsolya Valkó began her academic career at the University of Debrecen, where she attained the rank of habilitated professor and accumulated substantial experience in higher education. Since 2020, she has been based at the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, where she is the head of the Lendület Seed Ecology Research Group. Her research is centred on the exploration of the mechanisms that shape biodiversity in grassland ecosystems, and the development of conservation and restoration strategies based on seed ecology in Europe and Central Asia. Her research in seed ecology has revealed previously unknown mechanisms of human-mediated seed dispersal and new dimensions of seed bank formation in soil. She has developed the 'establishment gap' method to increase biodiversity in degraded grasslands. Adapting North American practices, she proposed a conservation strategy for the use of controlled burning in European grasslands.

She has a total impact factor of 735.9, a Hirsh index of 58, and her works received 9400+ citations so far. She regularly publishes in prestigious field-specific journals such as Biological Conservation, Conservation Biology, Conservation Letters, the Journal of Environmental Management, npj Urban Sustainability and People and Nature.

She has been the Principal Investigator (PI) on two large excellence grants (HAS Momentum and NRDIO Forefront Excellence) and the PI or subproject leader on several other projects, acquiring a total of 2 million euros in funding. Her ERC Advanced Grant 2025 application has been successful at Step 1 and has moved on to Step 2.

She supports the cause of conservation biology and ecological restoration through scientific publications and many other means. She was co-chair of a working group and lead author of two European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) policy reports: 'Regenerative Agriculture' and 'Wildfire in Europe'. A keen disseminator of scientific knowledge, she leads a citizen science programme with 6,000 participants (https://www.vadviragoskertem.hu/) and is a regular contributor to podcasts, TV and radio programmes, conservation education events and a research blog. In recognition of her work, she has been awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Hungary Prize twice, as well as the Women in Science Excellence Award, the Bolyai Plaque of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the HAS Youth Award, the HAS Environmental Youth Award, the Excellence Award of the Hungarian Ecological Society, and the GfÖ (German-Austrian-Swiss Ecological Society) Award. She is also vice-president of the Hungarian Ecological Society.