György Kriza retired in 2024 as a scientific advisor at the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics but continued his work as the data steward of the Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics (SZFI) within the Centre. He earned his degree in physics from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), and wrote his thesis at the predecessor of his current workplace, KFKI, where he also advanced through the ranks of the research career path. His field of expertise is the experimental study of superconductors and organic conductors. Using a broad experimental toolkit, his research has focused primarily on understanding and characterizing ordered states that emerge in the strongly interacting electron systems of materials.

Over the course of his more than four-decade-long scientific career, he spent about one-fifth of his time at foreign universities and research institutions, mainly in France at Université Paris-Saclay and CEA Saclay, and in the United States at UCLA. Alongside his research, he has taught almost continuously at both Hungarian and international universities, and he currently lectures at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He was among the first to complete the HUN-REN data steward training program.

As a data steward, his scope of responsibility covers the Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics (SZFI) of the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics, which comprises roughly half of the Centre’s researchers. The research conducted at SZFI is highly diverse both thematically and methodologically. His task is to oversee this multifaceted work and to promote the secure handling and sharing of research data with attention to the particularities of each discipline.

“I consider my most important task as a data steward to be enhancing the efficiency of the research conducted in my institute from the perspective of data management. I am most motivated by a deep respect and appreciation for high-quality research data—data that is collected with sound, purposeful methodology. Such data often speak more convincingly about the world than even the most eloquent speech.”