Mrs. Ferenc Nyitrai (born: Vera Gondos)

After graduating from university, he was employed at the Central Statistical Office (KSH) and, apart from an interruption between 1950 and 1957, he worked for the KSH until his retirement (1989).
Between 1958 and 1960, he headed the input-output group at the Industrial Statistics Department, between 1961 and 1963, the Mining, Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering Department, and then between 1964 and 1977, the Industrial Statistics Department.

In 1978, he was appointed the first deputy chairman of the office, and then between 1979 and 1989, he served as the chairman of the Central Statistical Office with the rank of state secretary. During his presidency, the Central Statistical Office was responsible for coordinating the IT and computer technology developments of state administrative organizations. In line with this, the International Computer Technology and Training Center (Számok), the Computer Application Research Institute (Számki) and the National Computer Technology Company (OSZV), which were under the supervision of the Central Statistical Office, were merged to form the Computer Technology Application Company (Számalk). It created and supported the application of computer technology by providing the most modern computer technology equipment (IBM central system and TPA computers in the regional directorates) and by establishing the necessary statistical professional conditions.

In 1972, he became a candidate of economic sciences, and in 1986, he became a doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

As a scientific researcher, he primarily dealt with industrial statistics, theoretical and methodological problems of economics, and the system of sectoral relations. He is responsible for the development of a new system of population registration, the reform of the office's international comparisons, and the organization of statistics education at the Janus Pannonius University of Pécs between 1973 and 1979 and the presentation of the results of Anglo-Saxon literature at the university's Faculty of Economics.
He was the seventh head of the Department of Statistics and Demography at the József Attila University of Science (JATE) in Szeged during the 1987/88 academic year.

After his retirement, he became a member of the Advisory Board of the Council of Ministers until 1990, and after 1989 he worked at the Institute of Social Sciences. From 1995 to 2004, he worked as an advisor to the President of the Central Statistical Office.

He made the results of Hungarian statistics known and represented them in numerous domestic and international statistical organizations. The International Statistical Society elected him a full member and the English Royal Statistical Society an honorary member. In 1983, the UN Statistical Committee elected him as the chairman of the body, a position he held for two years. Between 1984 and 1989, he held the position of vice-chairman of the Conference of European Statisticians. In 1989, together with several others, he founded the International Organization of Official Statisticians. He was a consultative member of the IX. Department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the chairman of the Statistical Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was elected a lifelong member of the Hungarian Statistical Society.

In 1991, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Janus Pannonius University, in 1998 by the University of Miskolc, and as an honorary university professor at the Karl Marx University of Economics.

He received a shared State Award in 1988. In 1994, he was awarded the Fényes Elek Memorial Medal and the Keleti Károly Memorial Medal, in 2003, the Middle Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, and in 2006, the József Eötvös Wreath.