Martin Kahanec, Professor at the Department of Public Policy and Director of the Shattuck Center for Human Rights at CEU, has been awarded the ESET Science Award 2025 in the main category “Outstanding Scientist in Slovakia.”
An international jury chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Edvard Moser selected Martin Kahanec for his distinguished contributions to labour economics, migration, and public policy.
Professor Kahanec is the first laureate from the social sciences and humanities to receive this prestigious accolade.
In his research, Professor Kahanec seeks to advance economic knowledge and apply it to pressing social challenges - ranging from the participation of vulnerable groups in labour markets, to developing a globally applied methodology for calculating the living wage, to examining how public policies shape equitable prosperity.
“I am immensely grateful to the CEU academic community, which guided my first steps when I was a student here in 1998–2000, welcomed me back in 2010 as a member of the Department of Public Policy, and continues to support and inspire my journey as an academic. For this, I dedicate the prize to all those who contribute to CEU’s excellence in science - producing world-class knowledge, enabling and empowering students, and shaping future generations of scholars,” he said.