We say goodbye

Bálint Dömölki (1935-2025)

Notice

The Computer Science History Forum of the John Neumann Computer Science Society hereby informs the admirers of Bálint Dömölki, who passed away on August 31, that his funeral will take place on Thursday, October 2, 2025, at 3:00 p.m. in the Urn Cemetery of the St. Gellért Parish in Kelenföld ( 1115 Budapest, Kelenföldi út 29.).

Please express your condolences with a single white rose (no wreaths are available).

The Neumann Society and the Gábor Dénes Award Winners Club Association consider Bálint Dömölki their own dead person.

This is how Miklós Havass said goodbye to his friend, the master of us all – on behalf of the ITF, the NJSZT and all of us.

News

On August 31, Bálint Dömölki, one of the founders of Hungarian computer science, died at the age of 90. Bálint Dömölki, who graduated from the Department of Mathematics at ELTE in 1957, worked at the Cybernetics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (where he participated in the creation of the first Hungarian computer, the M-3), and then from 1965 held leading positions in the software development departments of INFELOR, SZÁMKI and then SZKI. In 1990, he founded the company IQSOFT together with his colleagues.

In 1968, he was a founding member of the John Neumann Computer Science Society (NJSZT), of which he also served as president between 1985 and 1990.

He received numerous awards and distinctions: Academic Award (1983), State Award (1988), Dénes Gábor Award (2003), Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.

Our editorial staff remembered him with a mourning page.

Call

We call you,

to preserve and process the past of our profession together with you. The collection of the database, which contains more than 5,000 items and was created by the Information Technology History Forum (iTF) of the John von Neumann Computer Science Society, has so far focused primarily on the period before 1990. However, in the future, we would like to expand our activities to the years after 1990, as this era also brought about enormous changes. In order to draw a comprehensive picture, we expect the sharing of experiences from that time, as many ideas as possible, and active participation.

Therefore, we ask you to join the John von Neumann Computer Science Society and indicate the iTF department when applying! For details and the process of joining, please see
You can find more information on the NJSZT website.

The text of the call is available here.

Completed videos

The videos of our event titled "Workshops and Founders. Founding Professors of the Departments of Automation and Applied Informatics, Artificial Intelligence and System Design, Control Engineering and Informatics of BME (Csáki – Frigyes – Schnell – Tuschák)" are available in our Archive: in addition to the welcome speeches, István Vajk gave a presentation about Frigyes Csáki; Charaf Hassan about Róbert Tuschák and the Department of Automation and Applied Informatics; Béla Lantos about Andor Frigyes, Gábor Péceli about László Schnell; Bálint Kiss about the Department of Control Engineering and Informatics and László Gönczy about the Department of Artificial Intelligence and System Design.

What does the Data Archive contain?

The Data Archive contains digitized information and documents—both textual and visual—about key figures, products, institutions, and events in the history of Hungarian informatics, primarily from its beginnings up to the 1990s. Our continually expanding collection includes biographies, writings, and records of significant achievements, with some older contributors sharing their stories in personal video interviews. You can also discover which computing products were developed and used in Hungary before 1990 and get an overview of the most significant Hungarian and international conferences. The archive also features numerous historical documents and manuals, as well as the proceedings of major conferences held in the NJSZT library.

The significance of the collection is enhanced by the fact that, at an international level, only a few nations can boast a systematic collection of their IT achievements.

Several search options in the Database help you navigate. We also welcome comments and additions from readers. If you feel like it, you can also explore the materials in the form of a guided "time travel". ( TIME TRAVEL )

Our database is useful for experts and interested readers, and is useful reading for both young and older people preparing for the future but curious about the experiences of the past.

A brief overview of the contents of the Data Warehouse can be found here.

A study on the history of the first 15 years of the Informatics History Forum can be read here.