Slovakia's new elected president Zuzzuna Caputova was born in Bratislava on June 21, 1973. 

After studying law at Bratislava's Comenius University, she joined Via Iuris, a leading Slovak legal advocacy organization.There, she spearheaded a successful campaign to block a waste dump site proposed for her native Pezinok that would have been the size of 12 football fields.

For 14 years the town's residents fought against the planned landfill, with Caputova organising what was dubbed the largest mobilisation of citizens since the 1989 Velvet Revolution -- the peaceful uprising that toppled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

In 2013, the Slovak Supreme Court ruled in favour of the residents and annulled the authorisation to build the landfill. Caputova won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's top award for grassroots environmental activism, for her efforts.