Dr. Vértessy is chief of laboratory at the Institute of Enzymology, Biological Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in Budapest. She received her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1991 from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and a D.Sc. in 2001 from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She did postdoctoral work in the United States at the University of Chicago, in Germany at the University of Saarland while on an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, and in Sweden at the University of Stockholm. She received the Award Medal for Excellent Research during a Bolyai Janos research fellowship and the Equipment Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She is an elected representative to the General Assembly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This is her second HHMI International Research Scholar award.

Using integrated tools of biochemistry, structural biology, and cell biology, Beáta Vértessy investigates DNA repair and signaling pathways related to spontaneous DNA damage signals.