The contest attracted young authors from the Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (IFE) in Zvolen and from the National Forestry Centre (NFC) in Zvolen. Two scientific works developed by IFE authors and one scientific work developed by NFC authors were submitted to the Forestry Section of the Slovak Society for Agricultural, Forestry, Food and Veterinary Sciences to the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The quality of the submitted journal articles was assessed to be relatively high as they were published in the journals having impact factors between 1.076 and 3.666. Morever, the works were assessed as making a significant contribution to the development of the scientific field concerned. Following evaluation of the competing works with using evaluation criteria published in advance, there was established the list of the best works in the following order:

1. Ing. Eva Pšidová, PhD., Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Ľ. Štúra 2, 960 53 Zvolen

Pšidová Eva, Živčák Marek, Stojnić Srdan, Orlovic Saša, Gömöry Dušan, Kučerová Jana, Ditmarová Ľubica, Střelcová Katarína, Brestič Marián, Kalaji Hazem M. Altitude of origin influences the responses of PSII photochemistry to heat waves in european beech (Fagus sylvatica L.). Environmental and Experimental Botany (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2017.12.0. IF(2017): 3.666;

2. Ing. Michal Pástor, PhD., National Forest Centre, Forest Research Institute, Department of Silviculture and Forest Production, T. G. Masaryka 22, 960 92 Zvolen

Pástor Michal, Juhásová Gabriela, Juhás Dušan, Bakay Ladislav, Kollár Ján, Benčať Tibor. Occurrence of oriental chestnut gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus in Slovakia – short communication. Plant Protection Science; Vol. 53, 2017, No. 4: 243–246. IF(2017): 1.076;

3. Mgr. Zuzana Jánošíková (rod. Hečková), PhD., Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Department of Phytopathology and Mycology, Akademická 2, 949 01 Nitra

E. Ondrušková, Z. Hečková, M. Kádasi Horáková, A. Koltay, R. Ostrovský, J. Pažitný, K. Adamčíková. Distribution and characterization of Dothistroma needle blight pathogens on Pinus mugo in Slovakia. Eur J Plant Pathol (2017) 148:283–294, DOI 10.1007/s10658-016-1088-2. IF(2017): 1.466;

Awarded young scientific workers Ing. Eva Pšidová, PhD., Ing. Michal Pástor, PhD. They received their awards from the Society’s Chairman Prof. Ing. Jozef Golian, Dr. and the Society’s Forestry Section Chairman Ing. Ján Kukla, CSc. The ceremony was held during the Society’s Committee meeting in Zvolen on 7 February 2019. Photo by M. Kuklová.