New York Hungarian Scientific Society

On his visit to New York on September 19, 2010, the President of Hungary met Hungarian academics who live and work in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area.  At the initiation of the Consulate General of Hungary in New York, during this meeting, the President proposed the establishment of the New York Hungarian Scientific Society (NYHSS).

The inaugural session	foto: Győrffy Gabriella

The Society, as an informal social club, held its first meeting on November 3rd, 2010 at the Hungarian Consulate General in New York. The founding members decided that the President of Hungary and the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences would serve as Chief Patrons of the Society, while, the Consul General of the Consulate General of Hungary in New York, as the Patron.
The members elected János Bergou, Professor of Physics and Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, as President; László Záborszky, Professor of Neuroscience and Foreign Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Ms. Zsófia Trombitás, Consul of the Consulate General of Hungary in New York, as Secretary.

In March 2012, the Society commenced its activity as a New York nonprofit corporation organized exclusively for charitable, scientific and educational purposes. Its goals are to provide a distinctive meeting place for active participants of New York's Hungarian scientific and intellectual community in a club-like environment. The Society provides a venue for Hungarian scholars, scientists and students to gather for the promotion of science, culture and the dialog between the Hungarian and New York economic, scientific and public life.

The Society conducts meetings including sponsoring popular scientific lectures to inform the public about scientific fields represented by the Members of the Society. The Society established the Albert Szent-Györgyi Award to support young Hungarian scientist living in Hungary or in Central-Eastern Europe.

As a closing act to the first general meeting (November 3, 2010), Professor András Prékopa, Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, held the Society’s inaugural public lecture on János Bolyai, one of the greatest figures of both the Hungarian and world science.  The lecture was auspiciously timed as János Bolyai wrote in a letter to his father, Farkas Bolyai, on the very same day, November 3rd, in 1823, that, “I created a new, different world out of nothing.”  These words announced his discovery of the non-Euclidean geometry, which crucially influenced the progress of natural science in the twentieth century.

November 3rd is a landmark date in the history of Hungarian science. On November 3, 1823, the Hungarian Orders made a resolution at the Pozsony Diet establishing the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.  Count István Széchenyi offered to donate one-year’s value of the income generated from his estate to the foundation of the Academy. The World Conference of Hungarian Scientists in 1996 moved to annually observe this date as the Day of Hungarian Science.

The current Board Members are: Imre Bartos, PhD., President; Dorottya Nagy-Szakal, MD., Vice President; Gabor Takacs, Secretary; Maria Marai, Esq. MBA, Counselor at Law; Agnes Perenyi MD., FAAP., Treasurer; Laszlo Zaborszky, MD, PhD., DSc., Chair of the Development Committee and CFO, Past President (2012-2016); and Janos Bergou, PhD., Dr. H.c., Permanent Non-Voting Member of the Board, Past-President (2010-2012).