Biography

Norbert Kroó is Vice-President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and is professor of the Roland Eötvös University and the Technical University, both in Budapest. For 18 years he was the founding director of the Research Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In the first part of his scientific career he used nuclear methods in condensed matter studies and changed later to laser physics and quantum optics. Surface plasmon optics is a typical field of this type. He has published about 300 scientific papers and holds 40 patents.

While with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences he worked in several countries such as Sweden, Germany, France, Soviet Union, etc. and with outstanding scientists such as Herbert Walther and Alexander Prokhorov.

He is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Hungarian Academy of Engineering, Academia Europaea, European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Spanish Royal Academy, honorary doctor of several European universities and the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research (Dubna), member and former president of the European Physical Society, fellow of the Institute of Physics, member of editorial boards of several journals. He serves as member or chair of different advisory or experts groups of the European Union and is a member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council.

For his work he has received several awards and honours such as the 1st research prize of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Zoltan Gyulai and the Peter Pazmany Prizes, the Alexander Humboldt Research Prize, the Pro Doctorandis Prize from the Association of Hungarian PhD Students, the Jedlik Prize from the Hungarian Patent Office, the Cross of the Hungarian Republic with the Star, the De Scientia et Humanitate Optime Meritus honorary medal of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Nummum Academiae Memoraleu Tribuit medal of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Sub Auspiciis golden Ring of the Hungarian Republic, the Dennis Gabor Prize, and Hungarnet IT Prize, and others.