Gyula Sallai

Initially, he worked at the Department of Wired Communications of the Budapest University of Technology (BME), then from 1975 he worked as a leading researcher in the design of telecommunications networks at the Posta Experimental Institute, and from 1984 as its director. From 1990 he was the strategic sector director of the Hungarian Telecommunications Company, then the deputy general manager for services. In 1995 he was the international director of the Hungarian Telecommunications Authority, then the deputy chairman responsible for professional areas.

He obtained his Candidate of Technical Sciences degree in 1976; since 1997 he has been a Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 1997 he habilitated at BME. Since 2001 he has been a professor of telecommunications management at the Department of Telecommunications and Telematics (TTT) of BME, between 2002 and 2010 he was the head of the department, and between 2004 and 2008 he was simultaneously the Vice-Rector for Strategy of BME. He is a VIK professor emeritus of BME.

His professional activities over the years have covered the fields of telecommunications/infocommunications. He played a decisive scientific and professional leading role in the technological and structural modernization of the domestic telecommunications network. His research and teaching areas were initially telecommunications system theory, data transmission and digital signal processing, then computer-aided design of telecommunications networks and system engineering of network digitization. After that, he was responsible for the telecommunications development strategy of the Hungarian Telecommunications Company (MATÁV), then he developed the areas of service and customer management and was the manager of international and business telecommunications services, information activities and the business portfolio. He was then responsible for the development of the Hungarian Communications Authority's activities in international organizations. Later, he managed the authority's telecommunications and IT system regulation activities, as well as its metrology and international work. At BME, he headed the department dealing with telecommunications and computer networks, speech and multimedia information systems, and on his initiative the name of the department was changed to the Department of Telecommunications and Media Informatics in 2003. He is the founder of the field of infocommunication management, lecturer of engineering management subjects; his narrower research area is infocommunication strategies and regulation, and future internet trends.

He has reported on his professional and scientific activities in numerous domestic and international forums. He is a regular speaker at seminars of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and a member of study committees. He is the author and editor of several books. He is a member of the editorial board of Telecommunication Systems (USA) and other journals, the steering committee of the Networks international network planning conferences, and was the president of Networks2008. He has been a board member of the Telecommunication and Informatics Scientific Association (HTE) since 1991, was its president for six years, and is currently its honorary president. He has been a member of the Telecommunication Systems Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 1985, was its president for six years. He is also a member of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering. From 2011, he was the president of the IT and electrical engineering jury of the National Scientific Research Fund Programs (OTKA) for three years.

Awards: Merit for Higher Education (Minister of Education, 1968); Pollák–Virág Award (HTE, 1972, 1979, 1981, 2015); Loránd Eötvös Award (Minister of National Development and Economy, 1979); György Békésy Memorial Medal (MTESZ Optical, Acoustic and Film Technology Association (OPAKFI) and MATÁV Postal Experiment Institute, 1983); Tivadar Puskás Award (HTE, 1994, 2012); Merit for Information Communications (Minister of National Development, 1998), Gábor Baross Award (Minister of National Development, 2000), László Kozma Memorial Medal (BME Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, 2003); Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (2005); Gábor Dénes Prize (Novofer Foundation, 2006); Pro Universitate (BME, 2011); Ipolyi Arnold Prize (OTKA, 2013); Kalmár Prize (NJSZT, 2015); Palatine József Memorial Medal (BME, 2015); Civilian Division of the Middle Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (2021).