András Prékopa

After graduating, he was a post-graduate student at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and then a research associate from 1955 to 1956. In 1956, he became an assistant professor at the Department of Probability Calculus at ELTE, and from 1963, an associate professor. In 1968, he became a professor at the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of BME, and from 1977, a professor at the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In 1983, he returned to ELTE as the head of the Department of Operations Research, with the rank of university professor. He headed the department until 1999. Since 2000, he has been a professor emeritus at ELTE. Since 2016, he has been an honorary doctor of Óbuda University.

In addition to his university positions, he was the head of the Operations Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Mathematical Research Institute between 1959 and 1970, and then the head of the Computer Science Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences between 1970 and 1975. He was the head of the Applied Mathematics Department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Computer Science and Automation Research Institute (SZTAKI) between 1977 and 1985. In 1985, he was a professor at Rutgers University (New Jersey). Between 1987 and 1988, he was a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, and in 1988, he was a visiting professor at Stanford University.

In 1956 he defended his candidate's thesis in mathematical sciences (supervised by Alfréd Rényi). In 1971 he was an academic doctor. From 1979 he was a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, from 1985 a full member. He is a member of numerous scientific organizations and editorial boards of professional journals.

His research field is primarily operations research; he is one of the leading figures in the introduction, development and foundation of this topic in Hungary. He deals with the optimization of stochastic systems and mathematical statistics; he is the initiator of studies related to the so-called probability-constrained model. His significant achievement is the Prékopa-Leindler inequality in probability theory, named after him and László Leindler.

His awards: Géza Grünwald Prize (János Bolyai Mathematical Society, BJMT, 1956); Ottó Benedikt Prize (SZTAKI, 1979); MTESZ Prize (Association of Technical and Natural Science Associations, 1983); Tibor Szele Memorial Medal (BJMT, 1994); Széchenyi Prize (1996); Grand Prize of the János Arany Public Foundation (2002); Gold Medal of the Association of European Operations Research Societies (2003); Middle Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2005).