Laszlo Sipka

From 1961, he worked on instrument design at the Laboratory Equipment Factory, then on the process control tasks of domestic chemical plants at the automation department of the Heavy Chemical Research Institute (NEVIKI). With this experience, from 1965, he became a member of the department belonging to Pál Németh in the Economic and Systems Engineering Research Group (GRKCS) of the Automation Research Institute (AKI) led by László Edelényi. (This organizational unit can be considered one of the predecessor institutions of the Computer Engineering Coordination Institute (SZKI); from 1969, it effectively became part of SZKI.)

From 1969 to 1983, with a short interruption, he was an employee of the SZKI. At the SZKI, he participated in the initial research and development work of the domestic computer industry, in performing the coordination tasks assigned to the Institute, in preparing the necessary documents (SZKI, OMFB, KSH, KGM), working from 1976 alongside Zsolt Náray, the director of the SZKI.

From 1983, as a founding member of the TECHNOVA Industrial Innovation Fund, he tried to promote faster financing of technical developments. From 1987, he worked at the Education Office of the Computer Application Company (Számalk). His task was to employ those who did not gain university admission but wanted to study further, to initiate new educational and management training topics - the issue of quality, the usable experiences of our economic development.

From 1989 he was an economist at METALIMPEX, and from 1991 he was a technical and economic expert at COOPERS & LYBRAND (C & L) Vagyonértékeléő Kft.

Author, co-author, editor, and reviewer of articles, studies, and books dealing with industrial and economic development, our history, our technical traditions and achievements, and the history of technology. He participated in the planning and implementation of the exhibition “Dreamers of Dreams – Hungarians Speaking to the World” (Millenary Exhibition, 2001 – 2002).

He received the NJSZT Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 “for his activities over several decades in the domestic dissemination of computer technology and the critical analysis of the social impacts of information technology, as well as for his dedicated contribution to the work of the Society.”