Péter Szalay - Biography#

Péter Szalay was born in 1962, Szentes Hungary, graduated in chemistry from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Hungary in 1986, and received his PhD at the University of Vienna, Austria in 1989. Between 1991 and 2011 he performed research work at the University of Florida, Universität Mainz, University of Texas at Austin and University of Reims. His research focuses on quantum chemistry, especially methods of electronic structure theory, molecular properties and potential energy surfaces, excited states. Prof. Szalay published more than 130 papers, he is the co-author and co-editor of several books, received over 8000 citations and has an H-index of 46 (WoS)/55 (google scholar). Currently, he is professor of chemistry at ELTE.

Dr. Szalay carried several administrative positions at ELTE, e.g. Director of the Institute of Chemistry, Head of Department for Inorganic Chemistry and that of the Laboratory of Theoretical Chemistry, as well as Director of Bolyai College. Between 2015 and 2019 he served as Vice-Rector for Research.

Concerning responsibilities outside the university, he is the president of the Hungarian Chemical Society, and held the presidency of the Hungarian Fulbright Association for several years. Between 2017 and 2023 he was the chair of the Division of Computational and Theoretical Chemistry of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) and presently he is also member of the Executive Board of EuChemS.

Dr. Szalay is regularly reviewing scientific papers for prestigious chemistry journals, and grant applications for agencies like DFG, the Czech Science Foundation, National Science Center of Poland or The Research Council of Norway. He was member of ERC panels four times and served on the council of the Hungarian Grant Agency (OTKA) for several years.

Prof. Szalay was awarded "For the Hungarian Higher Education" Medal by the Department of Education in 2010 and the Polanyi medal of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2015. In 2017 together with G. Fogarasi and A. Császár he has been awarded the Széchenyi Prize, the most prestigious scholarly award in Hungary. In 2019 he has been elected to two prestigious international academies: the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Sciences and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.