What Was the Most Important Global Event of 2021?

Although this year has passed in the shadow of COVID-19, life has continued in all areas and industries – writers have published new books, artists have written songs and created works of art, athletes have trained and participated in competitions, researchers have worked hard in laboratories conducting research and making significant discoveries.

RSU lecturers and students have expressed their opinion on which event, achievement or discovery has been the most significant this year in the world.

The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo – the athletes' performances, victories and losses that could take place regardless of the restrictions. The athletes demonstrated an impressive ability to overcome obstacles and achieve amazing results.

Assoc. Prof. Dzintra Kažoka, Department of Morphology

Scientists finally managed to create a vaccine against malaria in 2021! This fact made us think about other diseases in the world that medicine has struggled with for a long time. Although this disease is certainly not a problem of the Latvian healthcare system, in many, especially the poorest regions of the world, this disease claims the lives of several thousand people every year.

Māris Ginters, Head of the International Admissions Office

The development of the space industry and the first successful "tourist" flights into space, as this opens up a wide range of opportunities for development.

Kristaps Zaļais, lecturer at the Department of International Business and Economics, Head of the study programme Start-up Entrepreneurship, mentor at the Technology Transfer Office

I believe that the largest global event in 2021 was the Tokyo Olympics and it was the greatest joy to see Latvia succeed, especially being awarded the gold medal in 3x3 basketball!

Toms Mārtiņš Smilga, 5th-year student of the Faculty of Medicine, Chairman of the Board of the RSU Student Union 2022

In 2021, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to US scientists Prof. David Julius and Prof. Ardem Patapoutian in physiology. They have been researching the molecular mechanisms of touch and pain for years, but this year they received the Nobel Prize for discovering the receptors through which people sense heat, cold, and touch. These findings will be used to look for ways to treat chronic pain more effectively.

Zane Vitenberga-Verza, Assistant Professor at the Department of Morphology, Leading researcher and Head of the Laboratory of Morphology