Anikó Szalai graduated as a lawyer in 2005 at the Faculty of Law, University of Szeged. At the same institution, she was a PhD student on state scholarship between 2005 and 2008, then assistant lecturer until 2012. She defended her PhD thesis in 2012 and became a senior lecturer. In 2019 she received habilitation, based on publications related to the law of treaties and minority protection, and has become associate professor. Since 2019 she is the deputy director of the International and Regional Studies Institute of the University of Szeged, Faculty of Law. She is a lecturer at the human rights and international humanitarian law master program of the Europa Universitaet Viadrina (Frankfurt Oder, Germany), she regularly lectures abroad. Her areas of lecture and research are public international law, human rights, minority law, and international organizations.
She has received several scholarships and prizes (e.g.: Zoltán Magyary Postdoctoral Scholarhip in 2013-14; Géza Herczegh Certificate of Merit, 2013, 2015; National Excellence Award, 2015; Best Monograph Prize of the University of Szeged, Faculty of Law, 2016; New National Excellence Program, Postdoctoral Research Scholarship, 2018).
She has been the member of numerous professional bodies, among others, she is the secretary of the Public International Law Sub-committee of the Legal Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, member of the Presidency of the Hungarian United Nations Association, member of the Board of Directors of the European Public Law Organization, member of the Board of Editors of the Central. and Eastern European Legal Studies, founder of the Regional Academy on the United Nations.