Nikolett Pénzváltó graduated as an International Relations Expert and Turcologist from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in 2014. She obtained a Master’s degree in Security and Defense Policy from the National University of Public Service (NUPS) in 2016. She defended her PhD dissertation at the Doctoral School of Military Sciences within the National University of Public Service in the autumn of 2020. Since 2016, she has been working as an external research fellow at the Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies. Over the last few years, she has worked as a lecturer at the NUPS and Pázmány Péter Catholic University. She joined the Migration Research Institute in February 2020, where her research mainly focuses on Turkey.