Nobel Prize: “Oh Yes, They are Very Much Hungarian!”

Hungary Today has asked Professor E. Sylvester Vizi, former president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences about his reaction to the amazing news regarding the two Nobel Prizes awarded to Hungarian scientists this week. Professor Vizi is the President of the Friends of Hungary Foundation (MOBA), publishers of our news portals. Furthermore, one of the award winner, Ferenc Krausz is also a member of our  MOBA foundation.

In recent days we have witnessed a “Nobel prize rain” in Hungary, stated Professor Vizi. Two Hungarians received Nobel Prizes, Katalin Karikó for medicine and Ferenc Krausz for physics. This is not the first time that two Hungarians have received Nobel Prizes in the same year – György Oláh, a founding member of MOBA, and János Harsányi both received their prizes in the same year, in 1994. György Oláh in chemistry and János Harsányi in economics. Both were born and raised in Hungary, reminded Prof. Vizi.

Similarly, the current award winner, also a MOBA member, Professor Ferenc Krausz was born and raised here, underlined the former MTA President. This is proof that Hungary produces incredible talent year after year. However, science is international, and you can seldom have the chance to work in one field, one city, one country, as new techniques and methods must be disseminated worldwide in order to allow for progress. Those who go to another country, to another area, in order to use these techniques, confirm that science is indeed based on international cooperation.

We scientists are quite different from politicians in this. Our results are based on the results of previous scientists.

Science itself is a shared project, everybody adds something. Who gets to the top, who is the genius who finally deserves it, is to some extent a question of diligence, of will”, added Prof. Vizi.

One could discover disparaging opinions in the Hungarian press, according to which Karikó and Krausz are not really Hungarian.

Both Karikó and Krausz have Hungarian passports, are Hungarian citizens, and both are members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Professor Karikó was awarded the Szent István Medal in the town of Esztergom a few weeks ago and also received the Széchenyi Prize. Furthermore, Ferenc Krausz is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and it was here in Hungary that he became acquainted with the problem of ultra-short-time laser radiation, an area in which Hungarians are quite excellent. He developed this further and worked on even shorter light waves, for which he and two of his colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize. Krausz is a true scientist who distances himself from the world and deals with problems and goals of science. In this he is a type of person who is very similar to our other Nobel Prize winner, Katalin Karikó, concluded his words Prof. Vizi.

Featured Image: Hungary Today