Bela Krekó (1915)

In 1947, he obtained an additional diploma in mathematics at the Faculty of Economics of the Budapest University of Technology; in 1948, he became a university doctor there. Between 1949 and 1954, he was a college professor at the Academy of Commerce, and then at the Academy of Economic and Technical Sciences. From 1954, he was an associate professor at the Department of Mathematics of the Marx Károly University of Economics (MKKE). In 1957, he wrote his book “Introduction to Linear Programming”. He is the author of other books that have served as a foundational work for generations.

In 1959, he became head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Budapest, where he began the university reform of mathematics education and the incorporation of the most important areas of operations research into education. Between 1967 and 1980, he was director of the University Computer Center. He was appointed a university professor in 1969.

He played a prominent and decisive role in the launch of the planning-mathematical economics major in 1961. In 1975, he defended his PhD thesis at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

He was the organizer and regular speaker of the first computer science education conferences. He participated in the modernization of university education until his death in 1994.

His awards: Silver Medal of Merit of the Hungarian People's Republic (1951); Outstanding Worker of Higher Education Award (1965); Silver Medal of the Order of Merit of Labor (1975); Neumann Prize (NJSZT, 1977); Gold Medal of the Order of Merit of Labor (1980); Hungarian Economic Society Széchenyi István Memorial Medal (1985). On the 25th anniversary of its existence, the NJSZT recognized his work in the Department of Mathematical Economics by awarding him a Memorial Plaque (1993).