

‘The Adam Kondorosi Academia Europaea Award for Advanced Research recognizes revolutionary discoveries in symbiosis and related fields. It was presented at the Academia Europaea – ALLEA –YAE joint conference for the first time in September 2017 to Professor Allan Downie, John Innes Centre, UK, for his work on rhizobium–legume interactions. The award consists of a diploma/medal and prize money. This prize was established in recognition of the significant achievements made in the field of plant and microbe interactions and symbiotic nitrogen fixation by the late Professor Adam Kondorosi.’
The 2023 award is presented to Professor Michael Udvardi (University of Queensland, Australia) in recognition of the tremendous impact of his research on plant–microbe interactions and plant science and his generous service to the scientific community.
Professor Michael Udvardi earned his PhD in plant biochemistry from the Australian National University in 1989. He is primarily interested in how plants obtain nitrogen for growth and protein production, either as mineral nitrogen from the soil or from atmospheric di-nitrogen via symbiotic nitrogen fixation in bacteria. He has contributed to our understanding of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes, especially of transport and metabolism in root nodules, using biochemical, molecular, genetic, and genomic methods. He was amongst the first to characterize ammonium and nitrate transporters in plants. He was part of a large international team that sequenced and analysed the genome of the model legume Medicago truncatula. Currently, his group focuses on the development of pan-genomic resources to accelerate breeding of tropical pulses, including mungbean and pigeonpea.
Professor Udvardi has published over 200 papers in refereed scientific journals. He was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 for his contributions to our understanding of legume biology, especially symbiotic nitrogen fixation.
The award was presented on 10 October 2023 at the annual conference of the Academia Europaea in Munich. Professor Udvardi gave the Adam Kondorosi Lecture on ‘Genetics and Geonomics of Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation: Past, Present and Future’.
Ray Dixon MAE gave the laudation. He is Director of the JIC-CAS Centre of Excellence in Plant and Microbial Science and former Head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK.