Ivan Fonagy

He completed his university studies in French language and literature, German language and literature, and phonetics in Cluj-Napoca and Paris. He started as a lecturer and translator, then worked in the Secretariat of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

From 1950 he was a research associate at the Institute of Linguistics (NYTI) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and was head of department between 1959 and 1967. In 1964-1965 he was on a study trip to the USA.

In the early 1960s, he was one of the first domestic initiators of linguistic applications of computers (examination of poetic language on the M-3 machine). In addition, he represented linguists as a coordinating committee member in the preparatory committee of the first Hungarian national long-term cybernetics plan led by László Kalmár.

In 1967, he was a professor at the Department of Hungarian Linguistics at the József Attila University of Szeged (JATE), but in the meantime he received an invitation to Paris.

He was a visiting professor at the Sorbonne from 1967 to 1970. In 1971, he settled in Paris and lived there until his retirement as a research professor at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

His connections with Hungarian academic life have not ceased: he has continuously published in domestic linguistics and literary studies book series, encyclopedias, conference publications, and journals.
Towards the end of the 1980s, more and more of his works were published in independent volumes in Hungary as well. With his scientific results, he provided effective assistance to those working in the domestic scientific public life. He gave lectures, participated in domestic conferences and professional discussions.

He was a member of numerous domestic and foreign scientific societies (Ferenczi Sándor Association, Hungarian Psychoanalytic Association, New York Academy of Sciences, Societé de Linguistiques de Paris, etc.). The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him as an external member in 1990.

Award: Bernát Munkácsy Prize (MTA Arany János Public Foundation for Science, 2003).