New Leader Appointed at the Helm of Eötvös Lóránd Research Network

(L-R) E. Sylvester Vizi, Balázs Gulyás, János Csák

Balázs Gulyás, neurobiologist, has been appointed as the new head of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELCN), by János Csák, Minister of Culture and Innovation, in Budapest on Tuesday – reported MTI.

Balázs Gulyás is returning to Hungary after 41 years to lead the Eötvös Loránd Research Network. As a scientist and science organiser he has a great track record, said the head of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation. Praising the career of Balázs Gulyás, E. Sylvester Vizi, Széchenyi Prize-winning physician, brain researcher, pharmacologist and former president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences said that Gulyás’ career, after graduating from high school in Pannonhalma, Semmelweis University and several years of physics studies at ELTE, began in 1981, when he left Hungary and obtained a PhD at the Catholic University of Leuven.

The laudation for Balázs Gulyás has been delivered by the former President of the Hungarian Academy for Sciences (MTA), the current president of the Friends of Hungary Foundation (MOBA), E. Sylvester Vizi. In his address he said that Gulyas’ work clearly demonstrates a commitment to the usefulness and value-creating nature of research, which is now also referred to as translational research.

The former president of the MTA pointed out that to date, Gulyás has co-authored 14 books, 250 scientific papers and 7 patents. In 1995, the General Assembly of the Academy of Sciences elected him an external member of the Academy. In addition to the Hungarian, he is a member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Medical Sciences and the European Academy of Sciences, where he is currently President of the Section on Life and Neurosciences. He is an Honorary Professor at Imperial College London, former Vice-Chairman of the Nunyang University Senate, and Chairman Emeritus of the Neuroscience and Mental Hygiene Program at the University’s School of Medicine. He attends management and leadership courses at the Universities of London, Oxford and Harvard Business School.  He is a member of the European Research Council Advanced Grant Committee.

Professor Vizi emphasized that the major works of Gulyás include the development and advancement of positron emission tomography (PET) applications, clarification of the physiological and pathological role of the blood-brain barrier, particularly its role in the therapeutic use of drugs, the first map-like description of brain areas important for vision, sense of smell, and even the brain’s role in memory storage. He is currently investigating the non-invasive possibility of “silent communication” between two human brains, i.e., the transmission of thoughts, and is thus exploring a completely new feature of the human nervous system at the peak of the development of the living world.

Together with his friend Sándor Lámfalussy from Leuven, the Nobel Prize winner György Oláh, the world-famous Éva Marton, Sir George Rada and Professor Alfréd Paszternák, who died a few weeks ago, he helped establishing the Friends of Hungary Foundation to unite opinion-forming Hungarians from all over the world and to help Hungary gain international recognition

– added the current president of MOBA.

Professor Balázs Gulyás, a member of the MTA, is returning now to his homeland. After four decades though he has actually never left his country as far as the Hungarian scientific community is concerned. Thanks to his appointment as a minister, he will take charge of the country’s largest research network, whose mission is to develop the power of science and the intellectual capital available in its institutes to shape the economy and society for the benefit of the country and to build a bridge between the world and domestic institutes and scientist – praised Vizi the work of Gulyás Balázs.

The full text of the laudation is available on the MOBA website.

Via MTI. Featured image: MTI/Soós Lajos