Slovak Scientist of the Year 2024

On Tuesday June 24th 2025, Olivier Monfort received the prestigious award of the Scientist of the Year 2024 of the Slovak republic, in the category of the Young Scientific Researcher, for his exceptional contribution in the field of wastewaters treatment research based on environmentally sustainable chemical processes using new unconventional materials and photochemistry. Dr. Monfort insists on the fact that the award is not "his" award, but the award of his research team (the M2 group).

Olivier Monfort is a French citizen who chose Slovakia for his scientific career. After a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in France, he decided to return to his alma mater in 2019: Comenius University in Bratislava. Olivier Monfort works at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, where he became the Deputy Head in 2024. Olivier Monfort habilitated at the age of 33 and leads a research group focused on fundamental research on nanomaterials for environmental applications. The main research directions are the investigation of innovative alternatives in wastewaters treatment and green energy production (e.g. hydrogen).

Associate Professor Monfort leads projects from different grant schemes, aiming at the same goals: to design sustainable, environmentally friendly and efficient wastewaters treatment. This topic is hot regarding the new EU directives on the quality of treated wastewaters and their potential reuse in the circular economy. To this end, the research team of Olivier Monfort is developing catalysts capable of generating chemical redox processes that increase the efficiency of wastewaters treatment by the action of light. This fundamental research is based on the understanding of these innovative processes that is one of the keys for potential applications. Without basic knowledge of the mechanisms involved in wastewaters treatment, it is not possible to optimise them in real practice.

The ultimate aim of the research led by Olivier Monfort is not only to look for alternatives to current wastewaters treatment technologies, but also to highlight the possibility of integrating innovative processes to achieve significantly better quality of treated wastewater that could potentially be reused.

Olivier Monfort has actively participated in more than 20 international conferences. He has so far published more than 50 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, 10 of them in 2024 according to the SCOPUS database.

Olivier Monfort is involved in projects as a primary idea holder and as a research coordinator, but also as a practical implementer. His motto is that excellence is always the result of the work of the whole team.

 https://tvnoviny.sk/domace/clanok/974771-ocenenia-vedec-roka-2024-su-rozdane