RSU Lead Researcher Linda Gailīte included in Research Latvia 2024 calendar and exhibition

The opening of the Research Latvia 2024 calendar and exhibition took place on 8 January at the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) theatre Zirgu pasts. The exhibition and calendar tell the story of 12 Latvian researchers from different generations, research disciplines, and institutions.

The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) has published the calendar and organised the exhibition to tell the story of 12 passionate personalities, outstanding in their fields and endowed with unlimited creativity. Their research contributes to finding solutions to global challenges and everyday problems in areas such as single-chip heterogeneous systems and their programming, innovative polymers, lithium and sodium ion battery materials, satellite data and geographic information systems, molecular genetics and functional genomics, fluorine and supramolecular chemistry, sustainable land resource and landscape management, creative entrepreneurship, sustainable packaging materials, and wastewater monitoring and treatment.

‘The Research Latvia 2024 calendar is about the continuity and succession of science in Latvia. It represents different generations of researchers, fields and scientific institutions, thus showing the strength and diversity of Latvian science. This year's calendar is visually very pleasing. The presence of the horizon runs through the calendar.

Science is freedom. It is a space with an endless horizon where new things are continually being discovered.

And at the centre are the researchers, people who are searching for answers to questions much larger than themselves. This year, the opening event took place in a creative space – the LAC theatre Zirgu pasts, a place where future actors are trained. I think this is quite symbolic, because science itself is a very creative process and all of us need creativity to tell the public about the achievements, discoveries and inventions of our researchers.

Visitors will have the opportunity to view the researchers’ portraits and watch three-minute videos on a smartphone using a QR code.

This year's personalities

• Ieva Zemīte, Dr. oec. (associate professor and lead researcher at the Latvian Academy of Culture Institute of Culture and Arts)
• Ilze Bargā, Dr. sc. comp. candidate (satellite data analyst and developer of satellite data exploitation programmes, researcher)
• Miķelis Kirpļuks, PhD (lead researcher at the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry)
• Pēteris Lakovskis, Dr. geogr. (chair of the Scientific Council and head of the Bioeconomy Department at the Institute of Agroresources and Economics)
• Vita Rovīte, Dr. biol. (head of the Molecular and Functional Genomics Research Group at the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre and head of the Latvian National Biobank)
• Prof. Mārcis Auziņš (head of the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Latvia Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Optometry, head of the Laser Centre)
• Linda Gailīte, Dr. med. (lead researcher and head of the Rīga Stradiņš University Scientific Laboratory of Molecular Genetics)

Watch Linda Gailīte's video (in Latvian)

• Brigita Dejus, PhD (lead researcher at the Riga Technical University Water Research and Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory)
• Jānis Veliks, Dr. chem. (lead researcher at the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, head of the Organic Synthesis Laboratory)
• Rihards Novickis, Dr. sc. ing. (head of the Integrated Circuits and Systems Laboratory at the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science, formerly the lead researcher at the Robotics and Machine Perception Laboratory)
• Gints Kučinskis, Dr. phys. (lead researcher at the University of Latvia Institute of Solid State Physics, head of the Energy Harvesting and Storage Materials Laboratory)
• Sandra Muižniece-Brasava Dr. sc. ing. (professor and lead researcher at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies Faculty of Food Technology)

The Research Latvia 2024 calendar and exhibition have been created by the Ministry of Education and Science for the seventh year in collaboration with the design service agency Ozols, photographer Iveta Gabaliņa, and video director Kristaps Mozgirs as part of the ERDF project Integrated National Level Measures for Strengthening Interest Representations for Research and Development of Latvia as Part of European Research Area.