Albert Szent-Györgyi And Noble Prize

n the past 110 years, Hungarian researchers and professionals have enriched humanity with several scientific inventions and professional achievements, many of them earning the Nobel Prize. At the time of receiving the prize, founded by Alfred Nobel in 1895 and first awarded in 1901, only a minority of the new holders were from Hungary. Many left Hungary, for Western countries out of political or financial considerations, and due to lack of research opportunities.

Lénárd Fülöp

At the same time, deciding upon “how much Hungarian” these researchers were, can only hinge on the extent to which they considered themselves Hungarians and felt that the Prize would also enrich Hungary.
Curiously, the lists of Nobel Prize winners who tend to call themselves Hungarians, had no sense of identity other than their origin, including Milton Friedman (1946, economics) or even Carleton D. Gajdusek (1976, medicine, shared).
The first recipient of Hungarian origin, was Fülöp Lénárd born in 1862, who was nominated for the Prize as early as 1901 and finally earned it in 1905 for his research on cathode radiation.
In 1914, Róbert Bárány obtained the Nobel Prize for physiological research. He had little contact with Hungary’s scientific life, and settled in Sweden after World War I. In 1925 Richárd Zsigmond received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was not known or recognised in the public life of his native country, even the press did not cover the receipt of his decoration, or recognised the importance of his research.

Szentgyörgyi Albert

The case of Albert Szent-Györgyi was different. He earned the highest scientific prize in 1937 for discovering vitamin C. He went to receive the prize from Hungary; then he offered it to the Finns in the Soviet-Finnish war. Finally, he donated the prize to the Hungarian National Museum, who still till this day, have it on display. Posterity was less thankful: Szent-Györgyi fled Hungary in 1948 for political reasons.
Having started his career in Hungary, György Hevesy later left for Copenhagen in 1919, and his research went on to earn him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 1943 “for the application of radioactive isotopes as indicators”. After World War II the first recipient of Hungarian origin was György Békésy, who left Hungary in 1946 and earned the prize for his medical activities in 1961. However, the prize gained was a recognition of his research conducted in Budapest.

Wigner Jenő

In 1963 Jenő Wigner, who played a key role in the creation of the nuclear bomb, earned a shared Nobel Prize in Physics „for his achievements in the theory of atomic kernels and particles, especially through the discovery and application of basic symmetry”.

Gábor Dénes

Dénes Gábor was awarded the Prize in 1971 “for the discovery and improvement of the method of holography”. Gábor had developed the basic principles, decades before but only put them into practice at a later time.
Holder of the Peace Prize from 1986, Elie Wiesel had a special life. As the sole Holocaust survivor in his family, he settled in Paris then later to the US. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace “because he was one of the most important leaders and chief intellectuals at the times when violence, oppression, and racism left their mark on the world’s physiognomy.”
In 1994, two professionals of Hungarian origin were decorated. János Harsányi was awarded a shared prize in Economics, and György Oláh in Chemistry, the former for “pioneering work in balance analysis of the theory of non-cooperative games,” the latter for his „contribution to the chemistry of carbocations” (a discovery which revolutionised the generation of carbohydrogens).
In 2002 the official explanation for Imre Kertész’s Nobel Prize in Literature read as follows: “for a writer’s oeuvre which expresses an individual’s vulnerable experience against history’s barbaric tyranny”. The author was mainly decorated for his novel “Fateless”, written during more than 13 years and first published in 1975. Last but not least, in 2004 Ferenc Herskó received a shared Nobel Prize for the discovery of “protein decomposition mediated by ubiquitin”, i.e. for the identification of the cellular emergence of various diseases (cancer, cystic fibrosis).
The past 110 years, have witnessed several researchers who would have deserved the Swedish prize, such as Loránd Eötvös for research on gravitation, Leó Szilárd for nuclear research, Ede Teller, who considered himself a Hungarian until his death, for the hydrogen bomb, Tódor Kármán for a revolution achieved in modern aerodynamics, and János Neumann often called a father of information technology.
(An exclusive article written for the Presidency website by the "Múlt-kor" historians' web portal)