About me
Perhaps my most persistent traits since my childhood are an endless curiosity for nature and solving challenging problems. When I realized that one can couple these two by pursuing a biologist’s career, I found my vision and way ahead. I am privileged to belong to those who have their hobby for their profession.
When not doing research, I spend most of my time with my other hobbies, including my three mischievous children (who are always readily fuel my need for challenging problems…), hiking, motorcycling, learning languages, astronomy and music (piano, guitar and choir singing).
My religion is nature. That’s what arouses those feelings of wonder and mysticism and gratitude in me.
Oliver Sacks
Educational background
During my diploma work at the University of Pécs, I have started learning about research in practice by joining an ecology project (monitoring small mammal populations in Hungary). As an undergraduate student, I did my best to widen my research skills and learn about different approaches in biology, mostly by doing summer internships. This included 2 months in a genetics lab at UMDNJ in New Jersey, USA, 4 months as an Erasmus student in an analytical chemistry lab and another 7.5 months (in total) in a proteomics lab at Lund University, Sweden.
Since the start of my PhD studies at the Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, I’ve been focusing on what always interested me: why do animals look and behave the way we see? Such questions are asked and answered by behavioural ecology, and I started my doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Tamás Székely, University of Bath, UK. By investigating the crazy breeding system of penduline tits, rife with conflict and cooperation, I started to appreciate the difficulties associated with investigating social interactions besides their significance.
Research experience
I apply a diverse range of research approaches, including field observations and experiments, and multi-generation studies in aviaries and in the lab using small passerines. In 2010, I established a captive population of ca. 450 zebra finches to study within-family dynamics, including parental cooperation and social learning of parental care. I have participated in field studies in Hungary, Transylvania, South Africa, China and the Danube delta (photos here). I was a Marie Curie post-graduate fellow at the University of Bath and an Eötvös postdoctoral fellow at Bielefeld University, Germany.
In the last decade, I started to collaborate in long-term projects that use social interactions (social learning and cooperative research paradigms) to investigate dog and dolphin cognition. In addition, I joined the Alpha Generation Lab (ELTE) to investigate the relationship of digital device use and socio-cognitive development in children.
My CV
Life is intrinsically social and it evolves through a process of natural selection which is itself social…”
Robert Trivers
Co-founding the Hungarian Jane Goodall Institute
Educating the new generation and taking actions for changing the way we take care of our planet has always been important for me. Following the path of the world-known primatologist, Dr. Jane Goodall, by co-founding the Hungarian Jane Goodall Institute and being a vice-president for three years at the beginning was a special experience and an important side-project for me.
Membership of various Hungarian and international societies
From 2017, I work as a consultant for the Hungarian Ethology Foundation, that aims at encouraging and promoting the study of animal behaviour through supporting research studies and the dissemination of knowledge.
I’m a member of various Hungarian and international societies, including BirdLife Hungary, Hungarian Biological Society, International Society for Behavioural Ecology, and the European Society for Evolutionary Biology.
Reviewing scientific journals
I regularly review articles for various scientific journals, including Animal Behaviour; Applied Animal Behaviour Science; The Auk; Behavioral Ecology; Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology; Bird Study; Biologia Futura; Ethology; Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution; Ibis; Journal of Animal Ecology; Journal of Avian Biology; Journal of Field Ornithology; Proceedings of the Royal Society of London and Scientific Reports.
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
Jane Goodall
