Hungarian President Katalin Novák hosted a gala dinner on Monday in Budapest to honour the two new Hungarian Nobel Laureates: Katalin Karikó and Ferenc Krausz.

In an interview with feol.hu, President Novák stressed that the success of Hungary’s recent Nobel laureates is further proof that Hungary had and still has excellent teachers. She added that the country must create the conditions for both the moral and financial appreciation of educators and acknowledged that ‘we’re not doing well’ in that respect.

With two Hungarians being recognized with a Nobel prize this year, it is worth remembering that the two scientists join a long list of Hungarian academics. Hungary in fact occupies a prestigious place on the list of countries with the most Nobel laureates.

State Secretary Balázs Hankó discussed recent efforts to strengthen international relationships, prepare for university collaborations, and launch successful applications for international funding in higher education, citing Hungarian Nobel laureates serve as outstanding examples.

Ferenc Krausz, one of the recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, credits his enduring passion for physics to his early education in Hungary. His journey from those early physics classes to receiving the Nobel Prize has been marked by groundbreaking achievements in laser physics and ultrarapid measurement techniques, including the recent exploration of medical diagnostic applications for detecting diseases at the molecular level.

Among the physics Nobel laureates, we can now welcome another Hungarian-born scientist, Ferenc Krausz. The researcher, holding both Hungarian and Austrian citizenship, resides in Germany, where he serves as the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics. Additionally, he is an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.