Baker, Robert

Robert Baker is Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Ohio State University. He  received his BS degree from Brigham Young University in 2007 and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley under the supervision of Gabor Somorjai.  He joined The Ohio State University in 2014.  His awards include the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, AFOSR Young Investigator Award, DOE Early Career Award, Young Innovator Award in NanoEnergy, and Journal of Physical Chemistry/PHYS Division Lectureship. He serves as principal investigator of the NSF National eXtreme Ultrafast Science (NeXUS) facility. His research focuses on the critical role that surface electron dynamics have on the selectivity and efficiency of catalytic energy conversion processes. Toward this goal his group has developed femtosecond soft x-ray reflection-absorption spectroscopy as a surface sensitive probe of ultrafast electron dynamics. In 2022-2023 he was a recipient of the Fulbright John Von Neumann Distinguished Award in STEM to Hungary.

Ball, Christopher

Chris Ball is founder and Director of the Central European Institute (CEI) at Quinnipiac University where he is an Associate Professor of Economics and holds the Istvan Szechenyi Chair in International Economics.  Ball serves as the Honorary Hungarian Consul for Connecticut where he promotes bi-lateral business relations with Hungary. Ball earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and earned his Ph.D. in International Macroeconomics at Texas A&M University.  He has published in top academic journals such as the Journal of Macroeconomics, Research in Economics, World Economy, Applied Economic Letters, and International Journal of Finance and Economics.  Ball has written on various topics in the Hartford Courant, New Haven Register, CATO Regulation Magazine and the New York Times.  He writes a regular column on international economic affairs for substack at Global Economics.

Bergou, János

János Bergou is a Hungarian physicist and academic who currently holds a professorship at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has been a Fellow of the Optical Society of America since 2006, and the American Physical Society since 2009 for "outstanding work in the field of quantum optics and quantum information”.  He was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2013). He is Honorary Doctor of the University of Pécs (2013) and External Member of the Chilean Academy of Science since 2017. He earned a Master of Science (1970) and a PhD summa cum laude in Theoretical Physics (1975) from the Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest. He received the degree of Doctor of Science from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1994. He is the founding president of the New York Hungarian Scientific Society, which regularly brings together scientists born in Hungary and working in the United States.

Boone, Theodore S.

Theodore S. Boone is a member of the faculty at Corvinus University in Budapest and Of Counsel in the Budapest office of the international law firm of Dentons. Mr. Boone’s work focuses on Artificial Intelligence and other information technology matters. At Corvinus University Mr. Boone teaches a course titled “Business Leadership in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”. In his work Mr. Boone draws on his experience arising from previous leadership positions in the US and Europe at international law firms and one of the Big 4. He is a former President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary and a former Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Law. Mr. Boone received a BA from the University of Illinois, studied as a Fulbright Scholar at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, earned a JD from Columbia University School of Law and holds an LLM from Hungary’s Eötvös Loránd University School of Law. Mr. Boone is a member of the Washington, DC, New York and Supreme Court of the United States bars.

Buzsaki, György

György Buzsáki is Biggs Professor of Neuroscience at New York University. His main focus is “neural syntax”, i.e., how segmentation of neural information is organized by the numerous brain rhythms to support cognitive functions. He pioneered the experimental exploration of rhythmic neuronal activity and defined synaptic-cellular mechanisms of hippocampal sharp waves, theta and gamma oscillations. His theories and innovative methods have turned studies on brain rhythms into one of the most active research areas of circuit and cognitive neuroscience and assisting diagnosis of mental disease and drug discovery. He is among the top 0.1% most-cited neuroscientists, member of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Academia Europaea, Fellow of AAAS, and he sits on the editorial boards of several leading neuroscience journals, including Science and Neuron, honoris causa at Université Aix-Marseille, France, University of Pecs and University of Kaposvar, Hungary. He is a co-recipient of the 2011 Brain Prize. (Books: Rhythms of the Brain, OUP, 2006; The Brain from Inside Out, OUP 2019)

Chikan, Attila

Attila Chikán is a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is currently Professor Emeritus and Director of the Competitiveness Research Center of Corvinus College Budapest (CUB) and a member of the Board of Directors of Central European University. His research areas include: business economics, corporate competitiveness and logistics. He received his PhD from CUB (then Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences) in 1969. He was the founding director in 1970 (currently its president) of the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies, which annually awards the John von Neumann Award to an outstanding scholar in the exact social sciences. He was Minister of Economy in Hungary from 1998 to 1999 and Rector of Corvinus University of Budapest from 2000 to 2003. He is author and co-author of 15 books in English and Hungarian, as well as over two dozens of papers in refereed international journals. 

Chikan, Viktor

Viktor Chikan is currently works as a manager at the technical development division in San Diego of ASML, the largest European technology company. From 2005 till 2022 served as assistant professor and later as an associate professor at Kansas State University where he was teaching physical chemistry and trained PhDs in physical chemistry and conducted research on spectroscopy, nanotechnology, drug delivery and cancer biotechnology. His work resulted in 80 publications and 2 patents. In 2014 took a sabbatical at the University of Szeged where he first started participating on the groundwork realizing Extreme Light infrastructure (ELI), the world's largest and most advanced high-power laser infrastructure. From 2016 on, he served as a group lead at the Extreme Light Infrastructure to build infrastructure and a research group for serving external users. In 2022, he received Fulbright’s prestigious John Von Neumann Distinguished Award in STEM to complete a novel experimental end station at the laser facility.

Ecsedi, Boglárka

Boglárka Ecsedi is pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology as a recipient of the prestigious Hungarian Stipendium Peregrinum Scholarship. She is a former Jr. Templeton Fellow and a winner of several national and international youth contests, including ISEF and EUCYS. She started her journey in AI research in 2019 in a summer program at the University of California Santa Cruz. Since then, she has contributed to high-impact software developments and co-authored several publications. She has been working on radiomic and Machine Learning-based approaches in clinical tasks and medical imaging in Dr. Laszlo Papp’s research group at the Medical University of Vienna. She is also conducting research in core machine learning and computer vision in Dr. Judy Hoffman’s group at Georgia Tech. 

Boglárka’s current research interests include representation learning, interpretability, regularization, and robustness in artificial neural networks and computer vision.

Feher, Katalin

Katalin Feher is an Associate Professor and Science Strategy Expert at the University of Public Service and an Enricher of the EU Transatlantic Horizon Next Generation Internet Program. As a Fulbright Research Scholar, her host has been Drexel University. She is a recipient of the Bolyai Janos Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the New National Excellence Program Bolyai+ Scholarship. Katalin is a Vice Chair of the Mediatization Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association, a member of the editorial board at the KOME International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry, and a member of the University of Southern California MASTS. She has extensive international experience, primarily in the United States, Southeast Asia, and Scandinavia. Katalin is the founder of AI Media Research. She has a Ph.D. in Communication and Media Studies and a habilitation in Philosophy. Her research interests include socio-technical systems, generative AI, and AI ethics.

Fonyi, Mate Sandor

Máté Sándor Fonyi currently pursues a bachelors degree at Budapest University of Technology and Economics and will graduate in the spring of 2024.He was  intrigued by physics from a young age what culminated in representing Hungary in the European Olympiad of Experimental Science in 2019, what was then called European Union Science Olympiad. He have always had a love for classical physics, but that shifted recently to nuclear energetics, and he is writing his bachelor thesis on fusion devices. From his freshman year he have participated in research activity at his home university, firs in physical chemistry, what lead to a publication in his second semester. At the beginning of his higher education in 2021 he was accepted to the junior programme of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Hungary's largest talent developing institution. He is part of the International Relations school with main focus on energetics and energy policy and how can we incorporate nuclear energy in our aim for sustainable energy production.

Forgacs, Gabor

Gabor Forgacs is a theoretical physicist turned biophysicist turned bioengineer turned innovator and entrepreneur. His academic affiliations include the George Vineyard Chair in Biophysics at the University of Missouri and the Chanderna-Stirkey Chair in Theoretical Physics at Clarkson University. He is the scientific founder of Organovo, Modern Meadow and Fork & Good and serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of the latter. He was trained at the Roland Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary where he earned a MS and a PhD in theoretical physics. He has been recognized by numerous prizes and awards. He is a member of the United States’ National Academy of Innovators and was named as one of the “100 most innovative people in business in 2010” by FastCompany. Dr. Forgacs is the author of over 200 scientific publications, 5 books and inventor/co-inventor on over 80 issued patents. He is the recipient of numerous federal grants by NSF, NIH, NASA, USDA, etc. He is the Fellow of the American Physical Society and member of the National Academy of Inventors USA.

Friedler, Ferenc

Professor Ferenc Friedler graduated in mathematics in 1977, received CSc degree (1990) and Doctor of Science degree (1995) in process systems engineering. His main research activity is related to the design and operation of complex engineering systems. Together with late Professor L.T. Fan, he is a co-founder of the P-graph framework that provides a theoretical basis for modelling a wide range of applications in process systems engineering. Founder, chair, and co-chair of international scientific conferences and founder of academic organizations. He was the president of John von Neumann Computer Society between 2013 and 2019. Currently, he is the Rector and Scientific Vice-president of Széchenyi István University. Honored with several awards including John von Neumann Prize, 2007; Dennis Gabor Prize, 2008; Széchenyi Prize, 2010; Egervary Memorial Award, 2010; Honorary doctorate, National Technical University Kharkiv, 2012.

Gedeon, Zsuzsanna

Zsuzsanna is a Chief of Staff and a start-up generalist with 6+ years of experience in executing visions, building systems & processes from scratch, and managing projects in the field of fintech and social entrepreneurship. Her day-to-day work involves managing operations, finance, investor relations, legal compliance, and maximizing the effectiveness of leadership and the team. She has a data & empathy-oriented management style and a track record in working with diverse, international stakeholders. She is passionate about building a diverse community & culture for her remote team. She is currently working at a NY-based crypto startup as a Chief of Staff, learning a lot about web3 and Anti-Money Laundering regulations & compliance. Before entering the startup world, Zsuzsanna was a Fulbright Scholar & a comparative constitutional lawyer, trained at NYU Law, Georgetown, CEU and ELTE Law School. 

Hargittai, Istvan

Istvan Hargittai is a physical chemist and professor emeritus (active) at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Academia Europaea (London) and a foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (Oslo). He holds a PhD and a DSc and is an honorary doctor of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, the University of North Carolina, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1989, he has been the founding Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Structural Chemistry (Springer Nature). He has published more than three hundred research papers and reviews and authored hundreds of other publications, especially in the field of science dissemination and popularization. He is the author and editor of more than fifty books on structural chemistry, history of science, memorials to scientists, conversations with famous scientists, published in a dozen languages, among them, The Martians of Science and Quotable John von Neumann (the latter with Balazs Hargittai).

Jokay, Károly

Károly Jókay is an expert in municipal finance and bankruptcy, Jókay taught municipal finance, public budgeting and public management in the Department of Public Policy at Central European University 2005-2017 and at Pázmány Péter Catholic University since September 2020. Jókay has extensive consulting experience in Central and Eastern European countries, including Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.

He was born in Chicago (1963) to Hungarian refugee parents, earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois. Jókay, who moved to Hungary in 1994, active in several civil society organizations, established a family foundation in 1993  to support the education of poor, rural children in the High School of the Reformed Church in Pápa.  Jókay has been Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission in Hungary since November 1, 2012.

Kiss, Tamás

Tamás Kiss is a senior researcher at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Budapest. He is the leader of the Quantum Information and Complex Systems Research Group as well as the Quantum Communication Infrastructure Laboratory. He obtained his PhD at the Eötvös University in 1999 (partly working in Berlin) doing pioneering research on the method of quantum state tomography, which became a standard technique in quantum information technology since that time. He spent two years at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland with a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, where he studied Hawking radiation in laboratory analogues, e.g. in Bose-Einstein condensed cold atomic gases. In recent years, his research has been focused on quantum walks and the effect of quantum measurements on the dynamics of systems in quantum information. He has worked out various aspects of the theory of measurement-induced, iterated, nonlinear quantum protocols.

Maliga, Pal

Pal Maliga is Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology in the Department of Plant Biology  and Director of Chloroplast Molecular Genetics Laboratory in the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers University.  Pal Maliga’s research group developed methods for the stable transformation of land plant chloroplast genomes. This technological breakthrough has led to an explosion of research concerning the chloroplast genome’s role in photosynthesis, functional analysis of plastid genes by reverse genetics and mechanisms of plastid gene regulation. His current research interests are biotechnological applications of chloroplast genome engineering, including applications of CRISPR/Cas9.

Marka, Szabolcs

Marka Szabolcs is the co-discoverer of cosmic gravitational waves; his extensive research ranges from astrophysics to biophysics. After graduating from Kossuth Lajos University in Hungary, he earned his doctorate at Vanderbilt University in the United States. He conducted research at Cornell University and the California Institute of Technology, and in 2004 he became a lecturer at Columbia University. His work is often covered by the international media, from the New York Times to Die Zeit to the Economist. He is the recipient of the Blavatnik Prize and co-winner of several prizes, including the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the Gruber Cosmology Prize. He strongly believes that in addition to the search for fundamental discoveries, scientists should also invest in improving human life by using their experience and creativity. He is convinced that science can make us live happier, healthier, and longer lives; moreover, engagement in art+explorations can make it worth living!

Marka, Zsuzsa

Professor Zsuzsa Márka is a scientist at Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory. She works on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) project that in 2016 announced the first direct detection of gravitational-waves. Márka led the project that built the LIGO and KAGRA timing distribution systems, key subsystems for instrument control and gravitational wave data acquisition, at Columbia University. She works with members of the Columbia Experimental Gravity group on various aspects of gravitational-wave multimessenger astrophysics with a special focus on joint high-energy neutrino and gravitational wave searches. She is also involved in the development of new technologies through the Columbia BioOptics Group with a focus on combating disease transmitting vectors via optical and acoustic technologies and a murine model of neurodegenerative diseases. As the mother of four children, Márka believes educating young minds for the beauty and value of scientific endeavors is very important for progress.

Miszlivetz, Ferenc

Ferenc Miszlivetz is a full professor at the University of Pannonia and director of the Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg (iASK). His research interests include democracy, civil society, Central European and European Studies, globalization and sustainability. Miszlivetz received his PhD in 20th century European history from ELTE in Budapest in 1983 and a DSc in International Relations from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2005. In the 2000s, he was a visiting professor at Babeș-Bolyai University, University of Vienna, and Columbia University, and from 2008 to 2017 he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Bologna (MIREES program). In 2015, he founded IASK, which he has directed ever since. Since 2012, Miszlivetz has been the Chair of the Social Sciences Section of the Hungarian UNESCO Committee and holds a UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Sustainability in Kőszeg. His major works include Illusions and Realities: The Metamorphosis of Civil Society in a New European Space; Central Europe ante Portas; The European Construction.

Mozner, Orsolya

Orsolya Mózner is a PhD student at Semmelweis University in the doctoral program of molecular medicine. She obtained her master’s degree in applied biotechnology in 2020 from Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Since 2016, when she joined the laboratory as a bachelor’s student, she has been a student researcher of professor Balázs Sarkadi at the Research Centre for Natural Sciences. She is the recipient of the Cooperative Doctoral Programme Scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary. This semester, she is a visiting student researcher at the laboratory of professors Susan Bates and Antonio Fojo at Columbia University on a Fulbright scholarship. She is one of the founders of CelluVir Biotechnology, a spin-off company for cellular immunity diagnostics. Her research interests include membrane proteins, cancer drug resistance, the genetic background of diseases and immunity diagnostics.

Nagy-Szakal, Dorottya

Dr. Nagy-Szakal currently holds a position as the Chief Medical Officer for Biotia, where she is responsible for the clinical molecular diagnostics lab that uses advanced genomic techniques and AI-powered reporting for clinical interpretation and pandemic response. Dr. Nagy-Szakal earned her MD and PhD in clinical medicine from Semmelweis University of Medicine in Hungary. Holding a research assistant professorship at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and previous postdoctoral fellowships at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Hospital and Columbia University, she has 15+ years of experience in translational medicine, pediatrics, gastroenterology and microbiology. She led cutting-edge clinical trials on fecal microbiota transplantation and developed a multi-center research program to understand the role of the gut-brain axis in the integrative neuroscience field with the ultimate goal of improving diagnostics and developing novel therapies. She is the President of the New York Hungarian Scientific Society.

Petak, Istvan

Istvan Petak, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist and molecular pharmacologist. He and his team have been pioneering precision oncology for the past 25+ years. Dr. Petak has co-authored over 150 scientific publications in molecular pharmacology and predictive molecular diagnostics of targeted anti-cancer therapies. Dr. Petak is an adjunct professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and a lecturer at Semmelweis University, Budapest. Dr. Petak co-founded Oncompass Medicine (Budapest, Hungary), which pioneered NGS-based molecular diagnostics in 2008. In 2022, he founded Genomate Health (Cambridge, MA, USA). He focuses on developing a novel computational system using artificial intelligence to help oncologists and cancer researchers make better clinical decisions on personalized treatment with targeted therapies, create better molecular diagnostic tests, and accelerate the clinical development of new treatments. The technology has won awards from various professional societies, including ASCO and DIGITALEUROPE.

Sagvari, Bence

Bence Ságvári is currently a visiting professor at Indiana University Bloomington. In addition to this position, he is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Social Sciences in Budapest and heads the CSS-Recens Computational Social Science research department. As of 2021, Bence is also an associate professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, where he teaches social network analysis, research methodology, and sociological theories.  His current research focuses on how digital trace data can be used to study social phenomena. He received his PhD in sociology from ELTE University in 2011. Since 2011, he has worked as the Hungarian coordinator for the European Social Survey (ESS), one of the largest cross-national comparative social surveys in the world. Besides his academic career, Bence is co-owner of Business Software Solutions Ltd (BSS), a company that develops various business software and smartphone applications. In 2014/15, he was Visiting Fulbright Professor at Indiana University.

Simonovits, Andras

Andras Simonovits has been working at the Institute of Economics, CERS since 1970. He has spent several months separately at various foreign universities and institutions: in Belgium (CORE at Louvain-la-Neuve, 1978/79), in the US (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Spring Term, 1984, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, Spring Term, 1984,  and Fulbright Scholar at Boston University, Spring 1997), and the Netherlands (CentER, Tilburg University, Spring, 1992). Between 2000 and 2015/16, Andras had taught mathematical economics at the Central European University and the Budapest University of Technology as a Professor of Economics. In 2007 he received the distinction of the Officer Cross of the Republic of Hungary and has won various Hungarian Research Fund prizes since the start, 1986. Simonovits has published almost 100 papers and half a dozen books. Since 1992, his research has been focused on economics of pensions, including theoretical and practical issues. 

Stipsicz, Andras

András Stipsicz is a professor and director at the Rényi Institute of Mathematics in Budapest, Hungary. He received his PhD from Rutgers University in 1994. Stipsicz was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine and spent several semesters at MSRI Berkeley, at the IAS in Princeton, the Max-Planck-Institute in Bonn, and the Mittag-Leffler-Institute in Stockholm. He received an ERC Advanced Grant in 2012 and was an invited speaker at the ICM2010 in Hyderabad, India. Stipsicz is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is an expert in low dimensional topology and in contact topology. He had influential results in smooth four-dimensional topology, and in applications of Seiberg-Witten and Heegaard Floer theories. Applying methods from knot Floer homology, he introduced  important invariants of knots in the standard three-dimensional sphere, and of Legendrian and transverse knots in contact three-manifolds.

Takats, Előd

Előd Takáts works as Adviser to the Deputy General Manager at the Bank for International Settlements. Prior to his appointment, he worked as Rector to internationalise his alma mater, Corvinus University of Budapest along four key dimensions: (1) quality international publications tripled in three years, (2) English language education share of the incoming class jumped from 20% to 50% in two years, (3) international faculty recruitment reached 25 professors in 2022/23 more than in the previous fifteem years combined and (4) university received international accreditation (AACSB) in Spring 2023 for the first time among Hungarian universities. Beforehand, he had a twelve-year long career at the BIS. Before joining the BIS, his career at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) covered several departments and countries, the last one being China. Furthermore, a visiting professorship at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) allows him to combine academic and policy work. He earned his PhD in financial economics at Princeton University.

Tiszavolgyi, Peter

Peter Tiszavolgyi is an accomplished entrepreneur, serving as a co-founder and co-owner of multiple successful tech businesses. His academic journey commenced with the pursuit of a master's degree in engineering at Budapest University of Technology and Economics and a second master's degree in IT Management from Corvinus University of Budapest. His businesses offer a wide spectrum of software development solutions, resourcing/headhunting services, and customized corporate training programs. Beyond his entrepreneurial pursuits, Peter is known for his commitment to fostering tech communities. He has co-founded influential tech communities such as the San Diego Tech Hub in San Diego and Protechtor in Budapest. Peter possesses an extensive and diverse expertise, spanning IT management, business strategy, software development, cloud computing, and low-code platforms. His unwavering dedication to innovation and excellence drives him to continuously push the boundaries in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

Toth, Miklos

Miklos Toth works as the Professional Lead at AI Coalition Hungary and a Lecturer at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. During his studies in Information Technology and Mathematics at the University of Szeged, he co-founded his first company with fellow students. In 2008, Miklos ventured to Germany, joining Audi as a Software Developer before transitioning to Volkswagen. His career took a global turn in 2012 when he relocated to Beijing, China, to serve as an IT Consultant for Volkswagen Group China (VGC). In 2015, Miklos returned to Hungary to establish his first AI startup. A year later, he began imparting knowledge as an IT Trainer at Audi Academy while pursuing an MBA degree at Central European University (CEU), from which he graduated with distinction in 2017. Currently, Miklos dedicates part of his time to educating professionals on Data Science, Big Data, and Machine Learning, both at multinational corporations and the Frankfurt School in Germany. His main goal is to help Hungarian SMEs integrate Machine Learning technologies into their processes.

Varju, Imre

Imre Varju MD, PhD, MPH is a Health Communications Specialist with a background that spans medical research, public health, and healthcare advertising. He is Senior VP, Director of Learning Strategy at YuzuYello, a Manhattan-based healthcare communications agency; advisor to the Institute for Technology and Global Health, a consultant for public health organizations, and Science Communication Lead at EUniWell’s Science Communication Working Group. He obtained his MD and PhD in Molecular Medicine at Semmelweis University, completed postdoctoral trainings at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, UK, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and at Harvard Medical School as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. He earned his Master of Public Health degree at Columbia University, New York, with a certificate in Health Communication and a Certified Health Education Specialist certification. He is passionate about finding innovative ways to communicate the complexity of health sciences in a widely understandable way.

Varkonyi-Koczy, Annamaria R.

Annamária R. Várkonyi-Kóczy received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering, the M.Sc. Degree in mechanical engineer-teacher, and the Ph.D. degree from the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary in 1981, 1983, and 1996, respectively. She was a researcher with the Research Institute for Telecommunication, Hungary, for six years, followed by four years with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Since 2009, she has been a Full Professor with Óbuda University, Budapest, currently at the Institute of Software Design and Software Development, and since 2013 at J. Selye University, Slovakia. Her research interests include digital image and signal processing, uncertainty handling, machine intelligence, intelligent computing, big data, and IoT. She is Fellow of IEEE, elected member of the Hungarian Academy of Engineers, former Vice President of the Hungarian Fuzzy Association, member of the John von Neumann Computer Society and the Measurement and Automation Society, Hungary. From 2023, she is Vice-President of the Hungarian Doctoral Council.

von Neumann Whitman, Marina

Marina v.N. Whitman is professor emerita of business administration and public policy at Ford School of University of Michigan. From 1979 until 1992 she was an officer of the General Motors Corporation, first as vice president and chief economist and later as vice president and group executive for public affairs. Prior to her appointment at GM, Whitman was a professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh. She served as a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers (1972-73), and as an independent director of several major multinational corporations. Marina received a master's degree and doctorate in economics from Columbia University. Her research interests include management of international trade and investment, and the changing role of multinational corporations. She is the author of The Martian's Daughter, a memoir, published in 2012.

Vörösmarty, Charles J.

Vörösmarty's research centers on large scale climate-water interactions. As co-Chair of the Global Water System Project, he organized 100s of international experts to study freshwater resource security. In the United States, he served on the Artic Research Commission (appointed by Presidents Bush and Obama), NASA Earth Science Subcommittee, and National Research Council Committee on Hydrologic Science (as Chair). His recent work has aimed at introducing corporate environmental performance metrics into investment decisions made by the private sector within the impact investing domain. At the request of the High Level Panel on Water (11 heads of state) he provided advice on global sustainable water infrastructure investments. In March of 2019, he was awarded the Hungarian Order of Merit by then President János Áder for a lifetime of distinguished research and student training. In early 2023, he organized two panel discussions for the U.N. General Assembly on the climate-health and climate-water conflict nexus.

Zaborszky, Laszlo

Laszlo Zaborszky is a distinguished Professor at Rutgers University, author of over 150 scientific papers, book chapters and a monograph. His research, supported by the NIH since 1986, has implications in the field of neural basis of attention, cognition as well as for such diseases as Alzheimer’s.  Editor: Neuroanatomical Tract–Tracing Methods (1989 Plenum; 2006 Springer); Founding Editor-in–Chief, Brain Structure and Function (2007-2021). President, New York Hungarian Scientific Society (2012-2016), President, Association of American Hungarian Academicians (2018-2020), Foreign Member, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2007). Board of Trustees Award for Research Excellence (Rutgers University, 2016), Knight Cross, Order of Merit (President of Hungary, 2013). Doctor Honoris Causa, Semmelweis University, Hungary (2022