András Benczúr (1969)

After graduating from university, he received his PhD in applied mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997. Since then, he has been a member of the Informatics Research Laboratory (ILab) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Computer Science and Automation Research Institute (SZTAKI), and has been its head since 2008. The laboratory employs more than 20 people in the fields of data science and artificial intelligence (AI) – in addition to groups working in the fields of theoretical computer science and natural language processing.

The Data Mining and Web Search Research Group, founded by him in 2000, is the country's leading data science research group, covering the entire innovation chain from basic research to industrial applications. He leads the Data Industry Working Group of the Artificial Intelligence Coalition (AI Coalition), as well as the Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence NKP (Growth Bond Program) project established within SZTAKI to research the mathematical theory of AI and the practice of machine learning.

The Board of Trustees of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences awarded him the János Bolyai Research Scholarship in 1998 and 2002.

As an adjunct lecturer, he teaches data mining and web information gathering methods at ELTE and BME, statistics at Central European University (CEU), and data mining and algorithms at Aquincum Institute of Technology (AIT).

His main research areas are data science, data mining and Big Data technologies, in which he is active from basic research to industrial applications. His Big Data research topic received a Lendület research group grant from the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2012 (finalized in 2017).

Organizational memberships: voting member of the Informatics and Computer Science Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, voting member of the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Committee of the Council of Academic Research Institutes (AKT).

Awards: Kató Rényi Prize (Bolyai János Mathematical Society, 1993); Pro Scientia Prize (National Council of Scientific Student Associations, OTDT, 1993); Academic Youth Prize (MTA, 2002); Béla Gyires Prize (MTA, 2006); Yahoo! Faculty Research Grant (Yahoo Faculty Research and Engagement Program, FREP, 2006); Kalmár Prize (NJSZT, 2010).