Announcing the recipients of the 5th Dr. Uroš Seljak Awards and Commendations

Announcing the recipients of the 5th Dr. Uroš Seljak Awards and Commendations

Announcing the recipients of the 5th Dr. Uroš Seljak Awards and Commendations

On Friday, October 9, 2026, in collaboration with the University of Ljubljana, we will present the Dr. Uroš Seljak Awards and Commendations for the fifth consecutive year to honor the best scientific articles published by first- and second-cycle students in Slovenia.

The initiator and founder of the award fund is Prof. Dr. Uroš Seljak, a long-standing ASEF mentor, distinguished professor in the Physics Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and alumnus of the University of Ljubljana. In 2021, Prof. Dr. Seljak received the prestigious Gruber Prize in Cosmology (Yale University) and donated his portion of the prize money ($150,000) to establish a charitable fund promoting scientific writing and research. In addition to the awarded students, special plaques will also be presented to their mentors for their dedicated work and guidance.

Recipients of the 2026 Dr. Uroš Seljak Award

  • Valter Hudovernik (UL FRI): Article: Relational Transformer: Toward Zero-Shot Foundation Models for Relational Data (Relacijski transformer: k temeljnim modelom za relacijske podatke z malo učnimi primeri)

  • Sara Klopčič (UL FMF): Article: Electrically and Geometrically Tunable Photon Pair Entanglement from Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystal (Električno in geometrijsko nastavljiva prepletenost parov fotonov iz feroelektričnega nematskega tekočega kristala)

  • Jona Novljan (UL BF): Article: Integrative Profiling of Condensation-Prone RNAs during Early Development (Celovita analiza h kondenzaciji nagnjenih RNA med zgodnjim razvojem)

Recipients of Commendations for Outstanding Scientific Work

Among the submitted works, the expert committee also recognized the exceptional contributions of the following students:

  • Luka Andrenšek (UL FMF) – A Complete Classification of Endomorphisms of Kiselman’s Semigroup (Popolna klasifikacija endomorfizmov Kiselmanove polgrupe)

  • Metodi Efremov (UNG) – On the Structure of Double-Coordinator Constructions (O zgradbi zvez s podvojenim veznikom)

  • Ajda Klepej, Ana Kukovec, Luka Lončar, Marko Sette, and Neža Trček (UL FF) – Empathic Response of Slovene Readers to Poetry in Slovene and English (Slovenski bralci in njihovo empatično odzivanje na poezijo v slovenščini in angleščini)

  • Nikolay Kormushev (UL FRI) – Mitigating Objectness Bias and Region-to-Text Misalignment for Open-Vocabulary Panoptic Segmentation (Zmanjševanje objektne pristranskosti ter neporavnanosti med regijami in besedilom pri panoptični segmentaciji z odprtim besednjakom)

  • Tine Šefic (UL MF) – Effect of Microgravity on the Feasibility and Accuracy of Dental Procedures (Vpliv mikrogravitacije na izvedljivost in natančnost zobozdravstvenih posegov)

Sincere congratulations to all awardees, commendation recipients, and their mentors! At ASEF, we are proud of the achievements of these young researchers and deeply grateful for the support of our mentor, Prof. Dr. Uroš Seljak, whose work continues to inspire new generations of scientists.