High Dutch Honour for Chemist Gyula Vancsó, External Member of MTA

Vancsó specialises in the nanotechnology of soft materials and macromolecules, the physical chemistry of surfaces and macromolecular materials chemistry.

Gyula Vancsó
Photo: University of Twente

After graduating in physics from Eötvös Loránd University, he studied materials science at ETH Zurich, where he worked as a researcher at the Macromolecular Institute, founded in 1983, and as an associate professor at ETH. In 1988, he was appointed to his first professorship in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto. In 1993, he was appointed to a tenured position in the Departments of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering in Toronto.

He worked there until 1995, when he was appointed as a full professor at the University of Twente (Enschede, the Netherlands) as Head of the Department of Polymer Materials Science and Technology.

Until his retirement this year, he was a research professor at the University of Twente as University Professor and Emeritus Head of Department (since 2020). He has also taught and conducted research at Nanyang University of Technology, Singapore, Donghua University, Shanghai, Budapest University of Technology, Barcelona University of Technology, ETH Zurich, and Santa Barbara University, California.

In 2021, he was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary for his outstanding research work and his decades of work in promoting the awareness and reputation of Hungarian science and for using his international experience in Hungary. This year he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.