Prof. Dr. habil. Ilona Kovács is a full professor at Loránd Eötvös University and the director of the HUN-REN-ELTE-PPCU Adolescent Development Research Group in Budapest, Hungary. She previously served as a research scientist at the Laboratory of Vision Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA (1993-2004); a full professor and vice-dean for sciences and international affairs at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (2003-2012); and a full professor, director of the Institute of Psychology, and vice-dean for sciences at Péter Pázmány Catholic University (2013-2022). Prof. Kovács is an elected member of Academia Europaea (2009) and a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2019). She has received the Charles Simonyi Award (2005) and the Award of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2006). Her influential research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature, spans topics in perceptual grouping, binocular rivalry, and spatial integration. Her areas of expertise within cognitive neuroscience include binocular vision, perceptual grouping, shape perception, cortical development, adolescent development, and sleep research.