Zuzana Hofmanová, research WP2 leader of the RES-HUM focused on archaeogenetics, is one of the winners of the Neuron Foundation Award for 2025. The jury ranked her among the seven most promising scientists in the Czech Republic. In her case, the award is for the field of biology.
Zuzana Hofmanová is an archaeogeneticist who pieces together stories of ancient families from bone fragments and DNA traces. She is one of the pioneers of archaeogenomics in Czechia, a field combining genetics, archaeology, and biology, and has long focused on the "invisible" actors of history. "History is selective. How little is known about entire large areas, but also about poorer people or women... Yet they were also our ancestors," says Hofmanová.
The award-winning scientist founded one of the first laboratories for ancient DNA analysis in Czechia and today conducts research at both the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and Masaryk University. She uses her international reputation to strengthen domestic science and to ensure that history ceases to be just a story of the elite. And to start speaking for those whose voices fell silent long ago. For example, she succeeded in uncovering the origins of the Avars, raiders from the early Middle Ages.
Hofmanová also led an international team of scientists whose genetic research confirmed that the ancient Slavs came to our territory and further into Europe from the area between the Dniester and Don rivers. "The Slavic expansion was not a single homogeneous movement, but a set of different migration stories—and there was no single 'Slavic identity'. Entire families, men and women, migrated and together formed new societies," Hofmanová said earlier about this research published in the journal Nature.
For over 15 years, the Neuron Foundation has been recognizing scientists in Czechia and supporting their work. The winners of the Neuron Awards are selected by a scientific council. The Neuron Awards are prestigious awards for young scientists and personalities with international reach, which, thanks to donations from patrons, also come with a personal financial bonus. This year's main prize went to physician and scientist Eva Kubala Havrdová. Among the winners is astrophysicist and long-time science popularizer Jiří Grygar.
The entire RES-HUM team congratulates our colleague!
Link to the article by the Neuron Foundation: Neuron 2025 Awards
Archaeologists from Brno are continuing their research at the Pálava locality on Tabulová Hill. This densely populated area, which flourished around 1000 BC, gradually faced decline and subsequent extinction. According to researchers, this could be related to military conflict.
