Recipients of University of Tartu annual awards have been announced

In the week leading to the anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, the University of Tartu announced the recipients of the university's contribution to society award, research award and language award, and the teaching staff of the year award. The awards will be presented at the ceremony of the anniversary of the Republic of Estonia in the university assembly hall on 21 February.

The university’s Academic Secretary Tõnis Karki said that this year’s award winners are excellent examples of how knowledge generated at the university can be applied for the benefit of a knowledge-based society. “It is gratifying to see that the awarded deeds have a practical output, contributing to the health awareness of young people, the accuracy of climate forecasts and the preservation of Finno-Ugric languages,” added Karki.

The contribution to society award is given to the University of Tartu Move Lab for initiatives improving the health and well-being of children and young people.

The School in Motion programme, which has reached more than 200 schools, helps schools adapt the school day and school culture to promote the health and well-being of children and young people. From autumn 2024, the modern physical education curriculum developed by the Move Lab was implemented in schools.

The award goes to Associate Professor in Health Education Merike Kull, Specialist at the Move Lab Maarja Park, Specialist of Physical Activity Studies Katrin Mägi, Research Fellow in Kinanthropometry Evelin Mäestu, Lecturer of Didactics of Physical Education Maret Pihu, Specialist at the Move Lab Reelika Kiivit, Training Specialist at the Move Lab Kadi Rutens, Coordinator of the Move Lab network Karmen Moont, Professor in Functional Morphology Priit Kaasik, Associate Professor of Social Innovation Marko Uibu and Professor of Communication Studies Triin Vihalemm.

Read more about the contribution to society award on the university’s website.

The research award is given for discovering glaciation of supercooled clouds at anthropogenic air pollution hot spots.

A research group of the Centre for Climate Research of the University of Tartu Institute of Physics studies to what extent the impacts of anthropogenic air pollution particles on clouds offset global warming. The group was the first in the world to show that these air pollution particles act as seeds for ice formation in clouds, causing snowfall. This reduces cloud cover and affects solar and thermal radiation fluxes.

The award goes to Associate Professor in Climate Physics Velle Toll (head of the research group), Specialist in Climate Physics Jorma Rahu, Professor of Climate Science Piia Post, Engineer at the Centre for Climate Research Tanel Voormansik and Research Fellows in Climate Physics Hannes Keernik and Heido Trofimov.

Read more about the research award on the university’s website.

The language award is given for contribution to preserving and developing Finno-Ugric languages through creating a digital translation engine.

Thanks to the work of researchers and developers at the University of Tartu Institute of Computer Science, the translation engine Neurotõlge can be used for translating into 30 languages, 23 of which are Finno-Ugric languages. To develop Neurotõlge, computer scientists collaborate with researchers from the Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, who have collected and digitised the rich vocabulary and created corpora of Finno-Ugric languages over decades. Providing machine translation for endangered Finno-Ugric languages will help preserve the languages and support their speakers. The translation engine is publicly accessible on www.neurotolge.ee.

Awardees from the Institute of Computer Science are Professor of Natural Language Processing Mark Fišel, Research Fellow in Natural Language Processing Lisa Yankovskaya, Junior Research Fellows in Natural Language Processing Dmytro Pashchenko, Hele-Andra Kuulmets and Taido Purason, Associate Professor in Natural Language Processing Heiki-Jaan Kaalep, Scientific Programmer Tarmo Vaino, Language Data and Content Creation Specialist Britt-Kathleen Mere, Programmer Aleksei Ivanov and Head of Applied Natural Language Processing Liisa Rätsep. Awardees from the Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics are Lecturer in Digital Linguistics Joshua Wilbur, Associate Professor of Finnic Languages Elena Markus, Associate Professor of Finno-Ugric Languages Fedor Rozhanskiy, Research Fellow in Phonetics of Finnic Languages Tuuli Tuisk and Research Fellow in Livonian Marili Tomingas.

Read more about the language award on the university’s website.

 

The University of Tartu's teaching staff of the year awards go to Teacher of Estonian Language Piret Toomet at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Lecturer in Special Education Pille Häidkind at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lecturer in Radiology Maksim Zagura at the Faculty of Medicine and Associate Professor in Developmental Biology Tambet Tõnissoo at the Faculty of Science and Technology.

 

Recipients of the teaching staff of the year awards are chosen by the evaluation committee of the University of Tartu Student Union based on nominations submitted by students. In 2024, 111 teaching staff members were nominated for the title. For more information about the recipients of the teaching staff of the year 2024 award, see the University of Tartu website.

 

The University of Tartu annual awards have been given since 2021.