Hungarian Inventions and Nobel Prize Laureates

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

The aim of this course is to explore the contributions of Hungarian scientists and those of Hungarian descent to the advancement of science. We will examine the achievements of numerous Nobel Prize laureates and other inventors whose discoveries have significantly enriched human knowledge. Students will learn about everyday inventions such as the ballpoint pen and the Rubik’s Cube, as well as groundbreaking advancements in Physics, Chemistry, Telecommunications, the Motor Industry, Space Exploration, Computer Science, and Medicine.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Syllabus

Week 1: Everyday objects invented by Hungarians

László Bíró, the inventor of the ballpoint pen

János Irinyi and the safety match

Ernő Rubik and the Rubik’s cube

 

Week 2: Electricity

Ányos Jedlik and the dynamo

Károly Zipernowsky and the transformer

Imre Bródy and the krypton-filled fluorescent lamps

Kálmán Kandó, a pioneer of railway electrification

 

Week 3: Telecommunication

The Pollak-Virag Telegraph

Tivadar Puskás, the inventor of the telephone exchange

 

Week 4: Radio and television

Dezső Korda and the world receiver radio

Dénes Mihály’s early attempt at television technology

Kálmán Tihanyi and the first flat panel plasma display

Péter Károly Goldmark and the colour television

 

Week 5: Motor industry

Donát Bánki and János Csonka and the carburetor

József Galamb and the Ford Model T

Pál Járay, a pioneer of automotive streamlining

Béla Barényi, the father of passive safety in automotive design

 

Week 6: Aeronautics

Dávid Schwarz and the airship

Albert Fonó and the jet engine

Pál Vágó and the aircraft stabilizer

Oszkár Asboth and the helicopter

 

Week 7: Military inventions

János Luppis and the torpedo

Tódor Kármán and the rocket

Leó Szilárd and the atomic bomb

Ede Teller and the hydrogen bomb

 

Week 8: Space exploration

Győző Szebehely and the Apollo program

Huba Őry, contribution to the Ariane rocket family, the Helios program, and the Spacelab space laboratory

Ferenc Pavlics and the Apollo Lunar rover

Antal Bejczy and Mars Pathfinder

Zoltán Bay and radar astronomy

 

Week 9: Computer science

János Neumann and the computer

János Kemény and the BASIC programming language

Marcell Jánosi and the floppy disc

Charles Simonyi and Microsoft Office

 

Week 10: Medicine

Ignác Semmelweis, the "savior of mothers"

Albert Szent-Györgyi and vitamin C

Róbert Bárány and György Békésy, Nobel Prize laureates for research on the inner ear

 

Week 11: Physics

Dénes Gábor, the inventor of holography

Loránd Eötvös and the torsion pendulum

Fülöp Lénárd and the cathode rays

Jenő Wigner, Nobel Prize for the theory of the atomic nucleus and elementary particles

 

Week 12: Nobel Prize Laureates in Chemistry

Richárd Zsigmondy – research on colloids

György Hevesy – research on radioactive tracers

János Polányi – research on chemical reaction dynamics

György Oláh– research on carbocations

Ferenc Herskó– research on proteins

 

Week 13: Imre Kertész, Nobel laureate in Literature

János Harsányi,  Nobel laureate in Economy

 

Week 14: The newest Hungarian Nobel laureates

Katalin Karikó, Nobel laureate for research on mRNA technology

Ferenc Krausz, Nobel laureate for research on attosecond physics

 

Week 15: Test

 

Reading list

Gelenbe, Erol: Nobel prize 50 years ago. Europhysics News 52/5, 2021. p. 40-42.
https://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2021/05/epn2021525p40.pdf

Hargittai, István: The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Hargittai, Istvan – Hargittai, Balazs: Brilliance in Exile. The diaspora of Hungarian Scientists from John von Neumann to Katalin Karikó. CEU Press: Budapest-Vienna-New York, 2023.

John T. Edsall: Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893-1986). In: Nature Vol. 324. 1986. p. 409.

Képes, Gábor - Erdősné Németh, Ágnes: As the Epitome of Talent: John von Neumann and Hungarian-born Scientists Around Him. In: Olympiads in Informatics, 2023, Vol. 17, 3–18.

Marx, George: The Myth of the Martians and the Golden Age of Hungarian Science. In: Science and Education 5: 225-234, 1996.

Pekonen, Osmo: Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All by Ernő Rubik. Mathematical Intelligencer 43, 148–149.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00283-021-10041-5.pdf

Szász, Domokos: John von Neumann, the Mathematician. In: Mathematical Intelligencer 33, 42–51 (2011).
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00283-011-9223-6.pdf