Pázmány Péter Catholic University

Pázmány Péter Catholic University
Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem
Latin: Universitas Catholica de Petro Pazmany Nominata
Established	May 12, 1635
Type	Private
Religious affiliation	Roman Catholic
Rector	Msgr. Prof. Dr. Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi
Great Chancellor	Most Rev. Em. Card. Prof. Dr. Péter Erdő
Academic staff	736 (2009)
Students	9469 (2009)
Location	Budapest, Piliscsaba, Esztergom, Hungary
Campus	Suburban: 52 acre
Affiliations	IRUN IFCU/FIUC FUCE CEECU IAU DRC REVACERN ELC EAIE
Website	www.ppke.hu

For other universities with similar names, see Pázmáneum (disambiguation)

Pázmány Péter Catholic University is a private university of the Catholic Church in Hungary, recognized by the State. Founded in 1635, the PPCU is one of Hungary's oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher education. The Faculty of Theology was established by archbishop Péter Pázmány in Nagyszombat, the Kingdom of Hungary (today Trnava) in 1635. The University is located in three cities: The Rectors' Office, the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Information Technology, and the Postgraduate Institute of Canon-Law are located in Budapest. The campus of the Vitéz János Faculty of Teaching is located in Esztergom, around the Esztergom Basilica. The campus of the Faculty of Humanities is in Piliscsaba, in the vicinity of Budapest. The university has several research groups and institutes in various fields. One of the most important international research-programmes of the university is the Syro-Hungarian Archeological Mission, which does the restoration of Margat's crusader fortress. Nearly 10.000 students attend the university, enrolled in several Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D. programmes. It has a wide range of internation cooperations, including the Erasmus programme and bilateral agreements. It is named in 2009 to be one of the most active members of the Erasmus programme. It is a co-establisher of the Internation Research Universities Network, and has strong connections with Radboud University Nijmegen, Catholic University of Leuven, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Saint Louis University and University of Notre Dame.

Rectors

• 1992-1998 Msgr. Dr. Ferenc Gál
• 1998-2003 Msgr. Prof. Dr. Péter Erdő
• 2003-2011 Msgr. Prof. Dr. György Fodor
• 2011- Msgr. Prof. Dr. Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi O.Praem

Great Chancellors

• 1992-2005 Most rev. Dr. István Seregély, Archbishop of Eger
• 2005- Most rev. Em. Card. Prof. Dr. Péter Erdő DSc, Primate of Hungary, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest

Academics

Faculties

The university has five faculties and two institutes.

Stephaneum, the main building of the Faculty of Humanities

Faculty of Humanities

The Faculty of Humanities was established by the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference on the 30. January 1992. (decree no. 46/1992.), with the permission no. Prot. N.223/91/9 (on the 30. January 1992.) of the Congregation of the Catholic Education of the Apostolic Holy See. The government of Hungary accepted it on the 25. May 1993. It is located in the town of Piliscsaba. The campus was created from a Soviet barrack, on 220,000 m². As it is situated in a nature reserve, only pavilion-like buildings were allowed to be built which don't interfere with the landscape's harmony. Its buildings were designed by the group of Imre Makovecz and it has become an architectural landmark (see the pictures below). The campus has a train station (since 1995) and a bus stop (since 1996) on its own; it is accessible from Budapest centre in less than an hour. Most of its students commute on a daily basis, but it has dormitories for the other students at the venue and in the town.

Faculty of Theology

The Faculty of Theology was established by Cardinal Péter Pázmány on 12. May 1635. It is working since then continuously. It is located in Budapest.

Faculty of Information Technology

The Faculty of Information Technology was established by the Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference on the 24. June 1998. with the permission no. 1246/1998. The government of Hungary accepted it on the 20. July 2001. It's located in Budapest.

Faculty of Law and Political Sciences

The Faculty of Law and Political Sciences was established on 3. April 1995. with the permission no. 503/1995. It is located in Budapest.

Vitéz János Faculty of Teaching

The Vitéz János Teaching College was founded on 3. November 1842, and integrated in the Pázmány Péter Catholic University as Vitéz János Faculty on 1. January 2008. It is located in the city of Esztergom. The campus is located around the Esztergom Basilica. Its Practicing School is working since 31. August 1893.

Graduate school

Postgraduate Institute of Canon Law

The Postgraduate Institute of Canon Law is a separately working ecclesiastical Faculty. Founded by the Apostolic Holy See on the 30. November 1996. with the order no. N.975/96. It is located in Budapest.

Collegium Hungaricum

The Collegium Hungaricum (officially Collegium Hungaricum Lovaniense, the former Home Cardinal Mindszenty) is a house for Hungarian university students, researchers and teachers in the city of Leuven (25 km from Bruxelles), at the Blijde Inkomstraat 18. The owner of the building is the Hungarian Province of the Jesuit Order, but the maintainer is the Pázmány Péter Catholic University.

Research

Hungarian Bionic Vision Center

The goal of the Hungarian Bionic Vision Center is to restore vision of visually impaired patients to the maximum extent and to improve the quality of their lives through using medical and technological aids. They run programmes to study promising medical and engineering technologies under active research.
Homepage: lataskozpont.itk.ppke.hu

Robot Lab

The RobotLab is to apply unique ideas inspired by Biology using Information Technologies. How is it possible to design better prothesis? Can neurobiology help to develop new remote control robots for helicopters? Can a biped be taught to walk in a similar way as we learned our balancing and moving patterns? What is the functional connection between visual and tactile sensing? These are some questions which are addressed by the Rotob Lab.
Homepage: robotlab.itk.ppke.hu

Ányos Jedlik Research and Development Laboratory

The Jedlik Laboratories is a new Science-Education-Technology Center where the advantages of multidisciplinary work is emphasized in some important emerging fields of science and technology. In the beginning the key areas were Info-bionics and Sensor-computing, Tele-presence and Language Technologies. Nano-bio technology, VLSI IC design and some other areas have recently become important key areas as well. Its mission is to bridge the gap between forefront research, university education, and technology transfer, including competitive R&D projects, via the daily interactions between research professors and students forming a unit where innovation and learning are developing in concert, and in close cooperation with the support of a few leading research laboratories and high tech companies worldwide. The other specific aspects of this center are Live synergies of information technology and life sciences, in particular the neurosciences, genetics and immunology as well as certain aspects of the emerging field of nano-scale engineering and molecular bionics. The synergy is supported via a hierarchy of models, including functional, macro, micro and nano-scale (molecular level) models, as well as analogue, digital and analog array -and-logic models, and including human and artificial language technologies. Based on the sensor revolution and nano-scale technologies, the emerging fields of sensor-computing, telepresence, integrated communication and ad-hoc mobile networks, bio-compatible interfaces, as well as "smart" energy saving devices and integrated nano-micro systems, we are searching for new directions of applications, products and services to be developed.

The Jedlik Laboratories is organized within the Faculty of Information Technology in an active and institutional cooperation with the founding and later joined institutes. The founding Institutes: the Institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), namely the Computer and Automation Research Institute, the Research Institute for Experimental Medicine, the Neurobiology Research Unit at the Semmelweis University of Medicine of the HAS, the Research Institute of Technical Physics and Material Science, the Research Institute of Psychology, the Institute of Enzymology of the Biology Research Center of the HAS, the Richter Gedeon Co., the Ericsson Hungary Ltd., and a few SMEs. The cooperating international research laboratories are listed in the International relations section.
Homepage: Jedlik Laboratories

Biomicrofluidics Research Group

The Biomicrofluidics Research group works on the development of Point-Of-Care (POC) diagnostic devices, optofluidic and digital microfluidic (DMF) platforms. This includes theory, numerical modeling, design, fabrication, test and different applications. Their main area of focus is microfluidic devices for biomedical applications. The Point-Of-Care (POC) diagnostic project focuses on the continuous observation and monitoring of biological liquids e.g. veterinary or human blood samples. The integration and interplay between optical and fluidic functionalities defines the emerging field of optofluidics. Microfluidics enables the realization of Lab-On-a-Chip (LOC) devices in connection with CNN-UM based camera systems. Thus, the obtained biomedical liquid analyzer can recognize cells and particles in the sample flow in real-time. The Research Group's Digital Microfluidic (DMF) platform is based the Electrowetting-on-Dielectrics (EWOD) phenomenon and they are currently working on different clinical applications of this. The biological fluid droplets can be moved by electric field on a superhydrophobic surface. Droplet mainulations allow for parallel and multi-reagent analysis.
Homepage: en.ufluidics.bionics.hu/

Research Centre for Competitive Law

It was established in 2006, at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences. It's main fields are organizing scientific conferences, publishing scientific papers, to spread the culture of competition.
Homepage (Hungarian): www.versenyjog.com

Syro-Hungarian Archeological Mission: Margat Excavations

The Syro-Hungarian Archeological Mission is a research programme of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University. Its main objective is to restore the Fortress of Margat, which is the largest Crusader Fortress of the Middle East, and to put under disscussion the era of the crusades in the Middle East. The head of the Mission is archeologist Balázs Major. The huge, 5.2 acre fortress of Margat related to Hungary not only because of this expedition. In 1218 King Andrew II of Hungary visited the fortress protected by the Johannite Order and contributed an annual sum of 1000 silver marks for its upkeep. According to Balázs Major, "the most sensational discovery must be the mural found in the chapel." This is the largest crusader mural unearthed in the Holy Land, and it is unique from an iconographical aspect, as well.

Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies

The Avicenna Institute is a non-profit research center with the objectives of promoting scholarship in the field of Middle Eastern studies. In this framework, several senior and junior researchers and fellows are assuming and pursuing our aims. Among their projects are organizing public and international scientific workshops and conferences, publishing scientific monographs, conferences’ proceedings, granting scholarship for junior researches. We have solid connections with Hungarian and international research centres, such as Pazmany Peter Catholic University, Saint Joseph University, Beirut and Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale". The Institute was founded to fulfill threefold objectives: to conduct research for thorough understanding of Arabic, Persian and Turkish cultures, to advise decision-makers, media-actors and businessmen interested in Middle-East issues, to disseminate knowledge on current topics in on-going public debates to avoid misunderstandings in intercultural dialogue. The institute works on several projects: - study the factors of continuity and discontinuity in Islamic legacy in the perspective of understanding the current development in the Islamic world, mainly in philosophy, theology, political sciences and literature, classical and modern, - organizing public and international scientific workshops and conferences to disseminate knowledge, - publishing scientific monographs, conferences’ proceedings, - granting scholarship for junior researches in PhD or post-doctoral dissertations.

Notable People

Honorary Doctors

• Max van der Stoel, the first High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (24. November 1999.)
• Urbano Navarrete SJ, Cardinal, Professor of Canon Law and former Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University (2. May 2000.))
• Paul Poupard, Cardinal, former President of the Pontifical Council for Culture and also of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (1. March 2001.)
• Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch (25. April 2001.)
• Franciszek Macharski, Cardinal, former Archbishop of Kraków (22. September 2002.)
• Alfred Bayer, President of the Hanns Seidel Foundation (22. September 2002.)
• Astrik L. Gabriel O.Praem., Director of the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame from 1952 to 1975 (2003.)
• Stephen Privett SJ, President of the University of San Francisco (2004.)
• James Crawford, Whewell Professor of International Law, Chair of the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge (21. January 2005.)
• Lorenzo Ornaghi, Rector of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (15. November 2005.)
• Gerardo Marín, Professor, Associate Provost of the University of San Francisco (2005.)
• László Szabó SJ, Professor Emeritus of the Saint Joseph University (2005.)
• John Lukacs, Professor of history (10 June 2009.)
• Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga S.D.B., Cardinal, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, President of Caritas Internationalis (23. November 2009.)
• Zenon Grocholewski, Cardinal, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education and Great Chancellor of the Pontifical Gregorian University (12. May 2010.)
• Miklós Vető, Historian of Philosophy, Professor Emeritus of the University of Poitiers (15. December 2010.)
• José Tomás Martin de Agar, Professor of Canon Law at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (5. May 2011.)
• Bronisław Wenanty Zubert OFM, Professor of Canon Law at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (5. May 2011.)
• Shenouda III, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (19. August 2011.)
• Jean-Luc Marion, Professor, Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Paris IV (Sorbonne) (27. September 2011.)
• Wolfgang Waldstein, Professor of legal history, University of Innsbruck, member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (29. March 2012.)

Faculty and Staff

• Kathleen E. Dubs, Old and Middle English, medieval literature scholar, her lectures on Tolkien revived interest in him in academic circles
• Tamás Freund, academician, neurobiologist, The Brain Prize laureate
• Ida Fröhlich, historian, made the first translation of the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls into Hungarian
• Rózsa Hoffmann, Secretary of State for Education
• András Jakab, Constitutional lawyer, Schumpeter Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, fellow researcher at Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales (2008–2010)
• István Jelenits Sch.P., theologian, writer, Széchenyi Prize laureate
• János Lackfi, poet, writer, literary translator
• John Lukacs, historian, author of "Five Days in London", "May 1940" and "A New Republic"
• Balázs Major, arabist, archeologist, historian, head of the Syro-Hungarian Archeological Mission, and the excavation of the Crusader Fortress of Margat
• Miklós Maróth, classical philologist, arabist, academician, vice-president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, honorary president of the Union Académique Internationale
• Balázs Mezei, academician, philosopher, literary critic
• Thomas Molnar, philosopher, historian, political theorist, author of "Utopia, The Perennial Heresy" and "The Decline of the Intellectual"
• Péter Polt, Chief-Justice (2000–2006, 2010-)
• Gábor Proszéky, linguist, mathematician, CEO of MorphoLogic, International Dennis Gabor Award and Széchenyi Prize laureate
• András Radetzky, Deputy executive officer, Hungarian Catholic Radio (2011-)
• Tamás Roska GCSG, academician, co-founder of the Cellular neural network. He wrote more than 200 publications and four books, number of his references are about 3000.
• László Sólyom, President of Hungary (2005–2010), president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary (1990–1998)
• Béla Weissmahr SJ, philosopher, theologian

Alumni

Pázmány alumni number is about 26,000.

• Tibor Benedek (2005) - Olympic, European and World champion waterpolo player
• Gergely Gulyás (2004) - MP, deputy chairman, Committee for Human rights, Minorities, Civic and Religious Affairs of the Hungarian Parliament
• Péter Harrach (1995) - former deputy speaker of the Hungarian Parliament
• Máté Kocsis (2004) - mayor, 7. District of Budapest
• András Koltay (2002) - member of the Media Council
• Karolina Kosztrihán - radio-host, ClassFM
• Tamás Gergely Kucsera (2000) - former presidential chief-adviser, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• István Madarász - film director, "Hungary - World of Potentials"
• László Mécs - alpinist, member of the first Hungarian team which managed to arrive on the top of the Mount Everest
• Bence Rétvári (2003) - MP, Secretary of State, Minstry of Public Administration and Justice
• Atala Schöck (1998) - opera singer
• Zsolt Semjén (1997) - Deputy Prime Minister, Minister without portfolio
• Ádám Steinmetz (2006) - Olympic champion waterpolo player
• Barnabás Steinmetz (2005) - Olympic champion waterpolo player
• András Stumpf (2004) - journalist, Heti Válasz
• Gergő Süveges - anchorman, MTV
• Anett Szabó (2004) - anchorwoman, HírTV
• László Székely-Mádai - ice-hockey player, FTC
• Ferenc Török - film director, "Moszkva tér"

External links

• Website (Hungarian)
  • Faculty of Humanities
    • International Office (in English) of the Faculty of Humanities,
  • Faculty of Law and Political Sciences,
  • Faculty of Information Technology
  • János Vitéz Faculty, Esztergom (Hungarian)
  • Postgraduate Institute of Canon Law (Hungarian)
  • Collegium Hungaricum, Leuven (Hungarian)
• Joint Study Abroad Program with the University of San Francisco
• Hungarian Bionic Vision Center
• Robot Lab
• Jedlik Laboratories
• Research Centre for Competitive Law (Hungarian)
• Pictures of the buildings at Piliscsaba campus (Hungarian)
• Official Homepage of Piliscsaba town (Hungarian)