Letter to Professor Ferenc Krausz from the leaders of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Dear Professor Krausz, dear Ferenc,

On behalf of the members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the entire Hungarian scientific community, we congratulate you on your Nobel Prize, which is a well-deserved recognition of your discoveries exploring electron dynamics and of your genuine passion aimed at understanding our universe. For many years, we had been anticipating that after winning numerous significant awards, your pioneering scholarship would also be recognized with the most prestigious scientific distinction.

In this very special moment, it is our particular pride that while you have elaborated your experiential methods based on attosecond pulses of light abroad, you have continuously maintained your relations and collaborated with Hungarian researchers and research teams, the Hungarian scientific public sphere and the shapers of science policy. Your recognition shines a spotlight on the history of excellence of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Eötvös Loránd University, which gave you a head start in your soaring research career, and also on the prestige of Hungarian higher education. Your sense of responsibility for Hungarian research and development has also manifested itself in the professional support that you have provided for the operation of the ELI-ALPS Research Institute in Szeged, a unique international research facility in Hungary.

We feel honoured to have you among the external members of our Academy, and we cherish the memory of all those occasions (such as the keynote lecture you delivered at MTA’s General Assembly in 2015) when you reinforced your ties to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

This is an uplifting moment in the life of the Hungarian academia: throughout the long history of this institution, never had the leaders of the Academy known such happiness as the pleasant duty to offer their felicitations on two consecutive days to Hungarian scientists upon winning a Nobel Prize.

Dear Ferenc, we warmly applaud you for your Nobel Prize, and we wish you continued success in your work, good health and many joys and happiness in your personal life.

Budapest, 3 October 2023

Tamás Freund
László Kollár
Anna Erdei