János Bitó

Between 1958 and 1971, he was a scientific associate at the Telecommunication Industry Research Institute (HIKI), then head of the Plasma and Electron Physics Department.

In 1960, he earned a doctorate from the University of Szeged (SZTE); in 1967, he defended his candidate's thesis; in 1971, he became a doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Between 1971 and 1986, he was the head of the technical department at TUNGSRAM, then the technical development director; then between 1986 and 1993, he was the managing director of the TUNGSRAM Robotics and Automation Center.

Between 1996 and 2000, he served as the Chief IT Advisor to the Minister of Transport, Communications and Water Resources.

He taught at ELTE since 1965; in 1986 he was appointed honorary professor of ELTE. Since 1964, he has been invited by foreign universities on numerous occasions to give 2-5 week lectures and to participate in and lead scientific workshops.
From 1993, he was the executive director of the Robotics and Automation Center of the Bánki Donát Mechanical Engineering College (BDMF), and then of its successor (the Budapest Technical College, BMF).
Since 2000, he has been an appointed university professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPKE); since 2002, a university professor at Óbuda University (ÓE); since 2006, professor emeritus.

He developed low-compute, adaptive robot control strategies using abstract algebraic and symplectic geometric tools. Later, he played a decisive role in establishing the international coordination of robot control research and development programs.

He has published more than 270 scientific papers. He has written 7 university notes, 14 book excerpts and several hundred scientific popular articles. He has published 5 professional popular books.

Member and then chairman of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Informatics Committee (2000-2004); member of the Habilitation and Doctoral Committees of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of the Budapest University of Technology (BME) (1996-), and of the University of Veszprém (then Pannon) (1994-2016) and the University of Óbuda (2006-); president of the Hungarian Robotics Society (1985-2004); member of the Multidisciplinary Doctoral Council of the Faculty of Information Technology of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University (PPKE) (1998-); member of the board of trustees of the "True Person" Foundation established in memory of Károly Simonyi (2011-).

His most important awards: Imre Bródy Prize (Eötvös Loránd Physics Society, 1967); Gold Medal of the Scientific Society for the Promotion of Knowledge (TIT, 1984); Loránd Eötvös Prize (Council of Ministers, 1991); Dénes Gábor Prize (Novofer Foundation, 1997); Arnold Ipolyi Prize (National Scientific Research Fund Programs (OTKA), 2002); IEEE Life Member (2011); Officer's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (Hungarian State, 2012).