Bela Volgyi

Béla Völgyi DSc is a full professor and Chairman of Department of Neurobiology in the Institute of Biology at the University of Pécs. Dr. Béla Völgyi is also a leader of the Retinal Neurobiology Research Group at Szentágothai Research Centre, Pécs. He completed his university studies at the József Attila University in Szeged, where he obtained the MSc degree in Biology and Chemistry in 1995. In the same year, he was admitted to the Doctoral School of Neurobiology of the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs, where he worked in Dr. Gábriel Róbert’s laboratory until 1999. During his PhD studies, he learned classic histological and immunohistochemical techniques and applied them to retinal morphological studies. In 1999, Béla Völgyi successfully defended his thesis and obtained his PhD degree. Armed with the knowledge acquired in the Gábriel laboratory, Dr. Völgyi undertook postdoctoral work (1999-2003) in Dr. Stewart Bloomfield’s laboratory at the New York University School of Medicine (New York, USA), where he expanded his examination repertoire with intra- and extracellular electrophysiological electrophysiology, cell filling and confocal microscopy techniques. In recognition of his exceptional work, Dr. Béla Völgyi was awarded with the Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Fight for Sight division of Prevent Blindness America, Inc. in 2000. He continued working in the Bloomfield lab as an assistant research scientist (2003-2005) and then as a research assistant professor. In 2007, Dr. Völgyi was awarded with the prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) independent investigator grant allowing him to establish his own laboratory at the NYU School of Medicine in New York. Returning and having settled in Pécs, Hungary in 2012, Dr. Béla Völgyi worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Experimental Zoology and Neurobiology, at the University of Pécs. He habilitated in 2014, and he was appointed associate professor in 2015. Dr. Völgyi obtained his DSc in 2020, and the following year he was appointed to become a full professor. He built his laboratory in the János Szentágothai Research Center in Pécs that he populated with equipment allowing complex morphological, molecular biological and functional studies. The work of his research group was supported by various grants (OTKA, NAP, EFOP, H2020 etc.). The international recognition of his work is also shown by the fact that he is regularly invited to review manuscripts, edit thematic volumes, evaluate applications, review domestic and foreign PhD theses and hold lectures in Hungary as well as abroad. In addition to research, Dr. Béla Völgyi is also actively involved in education, he is the lead instructor of several courses, and teaches other courses shared with his colleagues. Dr. Béla Völgyi also actively participates in the education of the younger generation, many BSc and MSc degree theses were created under his professional guidance. He mentored four graduate students in the past who have already successfully defended their theses and at the present he has been supervising three additional PhD students. In addition to all this, Dr. Béla Völgyi has been a member of numerous foreign and domestic scientific organizations over the years and continuously collaborates with both Hungarian and foreign laboratories.