Ferenc Krausz is not the first BME graduate to receive the Hungarian Saint Stephen Order

Among the honours awarded on the occasion of the Hungarian State Foundation Day, the highest one, the Hungarian Saint Stephen Order, was awarded to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ferenc Krausz.

After graduating in parallel with his studies at ELTE, Mr Krausz started his research career at BME. He became the 21st recipient of the honour, awarded since 2013. The first BME graduate to receive it was game designer and architect Ernő Rubik, back in 2014. In recent years, two other recipients of the John von Neumann Professor title, founded by BME, were awarded the Hungarian Saint Stephen Order, namely, mathematician László Lovász in 2021 and Nobel Prize-winning biologist Katalin Karikó last year.

Ferenc Krausz received the award from Tamás Sulyok, President of Hungary, at the Sándor Palace. Mr Sulyok recalled that Ferenc Krausz and his colleagues had given mankind new tools to study the movements and energy changes of the electrons that make up atoms, opening up infinite horizons.

"The ray of light that Ferenc Krausz shines reveals a dimension hitherto unknown. The discovery could save lives in medicine, renew many theorems in physics and chemistry, make other researchers rethink theories, set the world in motion," 

he was quoted as saying.

Ferenc Krausz said that the team he is building aims to lay the foundations of future preventive medicine, so that they can create a much more effective health care system not only in Hungary but hopefully in the whole world.

Rector's Office, Communications Directorate

photo: MTI