ABOUT

Gábor Szabó was born in 1954. He graduated as a physicist in Szeged at Attila József University. In 2010, he was elected a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. As a researcher at the Department of Optical and Quantum Electronics, Faculty of Science and Informatics of the University of Szeged, he is primary interested in lasers. Among other things, he specializes in photoacoustic spectroscopy, generation of femtosecond pulses, nonlinear optics, and medical applications of lasers. He is the number one advocate and supporter of the installation in Szeged of a super laser ELI-ALPS: Extreme Light Infrastructure - Attosecond Light Pulse Source. He has 2222 citations, a cumulated IF of 290.5, while his name is associated with eleven Hungarian, five US and three German patents. As a researcher and a popular lecturer at the University of Szeged, he has tried himself in newer and newer fields every 8 to 10 years; for example, he has been a visiting professor at German and US universities. He has a long list of public and professional appointments to his name, and his professional efforts are best represented by the fact that he occupied the position of Deputy State Secretary for Research and Development between 2000 and 2002, he has been Chairman of the Hungarian Innovation Association since 2007, and has participated in various research and industrial projects at the University of Szeged. He has occupied various positions at the University of Szeged, for example, he was Director of Institute, and has worked as the Head of Physics PhD School since 2007. He was elected Rector of the University of Szeged twice: first in 2010 and then in 2014. His most outstanding awards include the Academy Prize of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2000), the Officer’s Cross of Merit of the Hungarian Republic, and the Pro Urbe Award Szeged (2009). As a Rector, Gábor Szabó considers his most important task to make the University of Szeged significantly improve its position among the research universities of the world as one of the flagships of national higher education.