Sándor Nagy

Assoc. Prof. of Nuclear Chemistry, retired from the Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, ELTE

Ha Ön evés közben nem beszél, kattintson a
fenti zászlóra, amelyet alighanem jól ismer.

If you have expected to find a person wearing glasses here, just pull the cursor over my face. Although I tend to be startled by this, I will probably get used to it. If you have a problem with my beard, I suggest you to use Photoshop on my face. It is a painless tool of epilation.

A collection of nuclear links
used to be here. Google says, nobody ever used it. So I removed it all, but left the nucleus alone. Because I like it. I would miss it from my page. It is so decorative. It is so nice. And “touchy” too. See?

Timeline of nuclear & particle science
with lots of links to great sites
---------------------------------
Compiled for UNESCO-EOLSS
Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry.
(Courtesy UNESCO-EOLSS)

Degrees

CSc/PhD chemistry, ELTE, 1996
Dr. Univ. chemistry, ELTE, 1975
MSc chemistry, ELTE, 1972
~BSc applied mathematics, ELTE, 1979

Research Field

Various applications of Mössbauer spectroscopy (e.g. magnetic structure of alloys, high-temperature superconductors, minerals)

Abroad

Postdoctoral Fellow, Adjunct Associate Professor, Drexel University, Philadelphia, US, 1987-1989
Visiting Scientist, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, US, 1979-1980
Visiting Scientist at Lomonosov University, Moscow, URSSR, 1975

Teaching Experience

Physical and nuclear chemistry, Mössbauer spectroscopy, calculus, probability theory (ELTE)
General chemistry (Drexel University, Philadelphia)

Last responsibilities at ELTE (until 2012)

Member of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Science
Member of the Education Committee of the Institute of Chemistry
Supervisor of the integrated (5-year) Chemistry MSc Program for the Institute of Chemistry
Coordinator of the "Academic Track" of the (3-year) Chemistry BSc Program for the Institute of Chemistry
Lecturer in Nuclear Chemistry for the Institute of Chemistry

Honors & Awards

Honorary Member, Hungarian Bicycle Tourist Association (MKTSZ), 1993
Secretary, Eötvös Workshops in Science: Nuclear Methods in Structural Chemistry, ELTE, Budapest, Hungary, 1994
Trefort Ágoston Award, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, 1995
Vice President of the Council for Undergraduate Research at the Faculty of Science, 1997-2006
Gróh Gyula Award, Institute of Chemistry, Budapest, Hungary, 1998
Fáy András Award, Fáy András Foundation, Budapest, Hungary, 1999
Master Teacher Honor, National Council for Undergraduate Research, Budapest, Hungary, 1999
IUPAC National Representative in the Commission on Radiochemistry and Nuclear Techniques (Project Number: 2001-074-1-500), 2000-2001
Memorial Medal 'With Knowledge for Hungary', National Council for Undergraduate Research, Budapest, Hungary, 2002
IUPAC Fellow, IUPAC, 2004
Medal for Undergraduate Research, Faculty of Science, Budapest, Hungary, 2004
Pro Universitate Memorial Medal, Silver Grade, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, 2005
Honorary Theme Editor (HTE) of the UNESCO-EOLSS Theme 6.104. Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry, 2005-2007
Member, International Editorial Council (IEC), UNESCO-EOLSS, 2006
Memorial Medal 'For the Higher Education of Hungary', Ministry of Education and Culture, Hungary, 2007
Member, Board of Associate Editors, Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 2007
Hevesy György Award for Nuclear Safety (shared with Béla Lévay), Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), 2010

Handbook of Nuclear Chemistry, 2^nd Editon, 2011

Receiving the Hevesy Award, Hungarian Science Festival 2010

Informal Stuff

Born in the first half of the 20^th Century, I have have never been able to accept (although have well realized) that future belongs to specialization. This explains that besides teaching and research I have also been engaged in other activities. I have written four books on bicycling and translated a number of novels and short stories (by Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Roald Dahl, Frederik Pohl, etc) as well as several non-fiction books from English to Hungarian. For a decade or so I spent considerable effort on coordinating things like chemistry teaching. I have also grabbed a couple of opportunities to co-edit/co-author books on nuclear chemistry—one for Plenum and another one for Kluwer/Springer. The 2^nd editon of the latter—Handbook of Nuclear Chemistry—was published early 2011. (See the cover of Vol. 1/6 below.) I have also contributed to the electronic encyclopedia UNESCO-EOLSS.

One of my pet projects (or PETh projects, as explained below) has been lately the developing of a Nuclear Glossary in Hungarian (NewClearGlossy). It is stuffed with animations and simulations mostly borrowed from other scientists and teachers all around the world. This project has given me a good feeling: not just because it has been fun to work on it, but also because I have experienced how helpful and unselfish people can be. Many scientists/teachers seem to be sometimes almost as grateful to me for asking permission from them to use the results of their hard work in order to spread knowledge as grateful I am to them for their kind help. I have been also building a collection of animations/simulations of wider scope that I call Asimov Téka in Hungarian (~Asimov Library). I would probaly call it Asimov MSc in English, meaning “Animations & simulations or: visualizing Maths & Science”. These kinds of activities—quite unexpectedly—brought me an award that I recently won.

Besides my PETh projects—the acronym comes from psychology and refers to the mental state defined as “Patholigically Engrossed in Thinkering”—I have also spent considerable time and energy on the PhET project of the Univercity of Colorado translating the website and ~70% of their science simulations to Hungarian. My efforts have been kindly acknowledged (actually quite a bit exaggerated) by the PhET team. I would like to believe that my Letter of Reference that I had written for PhET helped it to become a Tech Award Laureate in 2011. They have well deserved it.

Actually, I also have some virtual pets. Being somewhat forgetful, I leave their feeding completely to visitors. However, from time to time, I count them (both the fish and the visitors). Due to the attention and the virtual fish food they get from considerate people like you, they are virtually all alive and seem to be as happy as a clam. Thank you.

You can so meet my artist friends. Further topics of possible interest are creative gardening and nature photography.