President Novák: Two Nobel Prizes ‘great honour’ for Hungary

The two Nobel Prizes won earlier this month by Hungarian scientists Katalin Karikó and Ferenc Krausz, respectively, are a “great honour” for Hungary, President Katalin Novák said in an interview with local news site feol.hu on Monday following her visit to Fejér County.

“Let us celebrate together that two exceptional Hungarians have achieved such major recognition to the greatest joy and pride of the entire nation,” Novák said.

One Nobel laureate is already something to be immensely proud of, “but to have two at the same time is an outright miracle”, the president said. The residents of central Hungary’s Fejer County can be especially proud to give the nation a Nobel laureate in the person of physicist Ferenc Krausz, she added.

Kariko and Krausz are Hungarians with a Hungarian mindset “who have reached the top of the world and the Nobel Prize having come from the Hungarian education system”, Novák said, adding that the two scientists had “even saved the lives of millions with the findings of their research”.

Novák said she had met Krausz’s parents during her visit to the county, and had been able to “look the non-intellectual, hardworking and honest parents in the eye and thank them on behalf of all Hungarians”. She then paid a visit to the primary school where Krausz had “started out on his journey to the Nobel Prize”.

The success these two scientists have achieved is further proof that Hungary had and still has excellent teachers, Novák said.

“There’s no question that we must create the conditions for both the moral and financial appreciation of teachers,” she said, adding that “we’re not doing well there”.