Prof. Emese Virág Kiss , MD

She graduated from the University Medical School of Debrecen, where she gained clinical, teaching, and research experience at the Third Department of Internal Medicine. She obtained board certification in three specialties and successfully defended both her PhD dissertation and her habilitation thesis. She has worked at Semmelweis University since 2007, becoming an associate professor in 2010 and a full professor in 2015.

Her professional and scientific work focuses on systemic autoimmune and inflammatory musculoskeletal diseases, particularly the diagnosis, treatment, and investigation of systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid syndrome. Her research interests also encompass other areas of rheumatology and clinical immunology, including immunodeficiency disorders and reproductive immunology.

An internationally recognised researcher, she is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications and numerous chapters in academic books and textbooks. Her research has received nearly 5,000 citations recorded in the Hungarian Scientific Bibliography (MTMT), and she has an h-index of 41. Her translational research activities include serving as principal investigator on several OTKA, ETT, and other research grants. She has also participated as a principal investigator in numerous clinical drug trials.

She is actively involved in undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral education. As an accredited educator, doctoral supervisor, tutor, and mentor, she plays an important role in the professional and scientific development of the next generation of physicians and researchers.

She is currently serving her second four-year term as Chair of the Clinical Immunology and Allergology Section of the Healthcare Professional College. She is President of the Hungarian Society for Reproductive Immunology and Chair of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Standing Interdepartmental Committee on Environment and Health. She is also a member of the Research and Development Ethics Committee of the Medical Research Council. She serves on the executive boards of the Hungarian Society of Internal Medicine and the Hungarian Society for Personalised Medicine. Having previously served as Treasurer and Secretary-General of the Hungarian Rheumatologists’ Association, she is currently its Vice-President.

Her work has been recognised with several distinctions, including the Scholarship of the Hungarian People’s Republic, the László Batthyány-Strattmann Award, the Sándor Bozsóky Award, and the Sándor Belák Award.