Dénes Dudits

Mosonmagyaróvár, 5 October 1943
Certified Agricultural Engineer, a Doctor of Biological Sciences

Director of the Institute of Plant Physiology (later called Institute of Plant Biology) of the BRC of the HAS („MTA”): 1989-1999
Director General of the BRC of the HAS („MTA”): 1997-2009
Vice President (Life Sciences) of the HAS („MTA”): 2008-

Studies:
Dénes Dudits studied at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Gödöllő University of Agricultural Sciences, where he obtained a summa cum laude degree in agricultural engineering in the year 1966. Already as early as from 1962, he worked at the Department of Plant Breeding as a Students’ Scholarly Circle member. It was during this period that his scientific career started, with his experiments, studies and examinations of wheat lodging and induced pea mutants. He defended his PhD dissertation in 1972, whose title was „Mutational Genetic and Breeding Examinations on Peas”. In 1974-75, he worked for one year under the supervision of K. N. Kao and O. L. Gamborg in the „Prairie Regional” Laboratory (National Research Council of Canada, Saskatoon, Canada). He earned his Doctor of Biological Sciences degree in 1984 through defending his dissertation entitled „Somatic Hybridisation Through the Fusion of Plant Protoplasts”. He became familiar with the recombinant-DNA methods when working as a visiting professor at the Molecular Biology Department of Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston) and at the Faculty of Medicine of Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), between 1982 and 1983.

Research and innovation activities:
In the early seventies, he established the Wheat Tissue Culture Laboratory in the Institute of Genetics of the Biological Research Centre of the HAS („MTA”) and published an article of fundamental importance about the methodology of wheat production from cultured cells. A milestone in his scientific career was the application of somatic hybridisation through the fusion of plant protoplasts to create new genetic variants. An internationally recognised initiative was the elaboration of the methodology of asymmetric somatic hybridization to implement gene transmission between non-crossable species. He and his fellow researchers were the first in the world to announce the production of transgenic alfalfa plants and it was him and Csaba Koncz who launched the application of recombinant DNA methods in plant systems in Hungary through maize mitochondrial plasmid cloning. The isolation and description of histone genes aroused significant international interest. Together with maize breeder Sándor Mórocz they worked out and patented the plant regeneration method using maize protoplasts, as a result of their ten-year cooperation with Hoechst. They published several articles about the creation of transgenic maize genotypes. As part of their studies of the somatic embryogenesis molecular processes based on the totipotential of plant cells, they came up with an internationally competitive initiative, namely, the isolation of cyclin-dependent kinase genes from alfalfa. This laid the foundation for new plant cell cycle research projects. They actively participated in the detailed functional description of the cyclin, phosphatase, inhibitor and retinoblastoma plant genes and proteins. As the coordinator of the Wheat Consortium, which was organised twice, he integrated Hungary’s numerous wheat research projects, which covered fields ranging from functional genomics all the way to variety-producing breeding, into an umbrella programme. In the course of the implementation of the said scientific projects, 27 PhD students obtained their PhD degree. Results of his scientific work so far: number of publications: 208, of which 8 are separate books and 7 are book chapters; number of citations: 3270; total impact factor: 292.154; Hirsch-index: 33; number of patent applications: 10. He is the organiser and Chairman of the Barabás Zoltán Biotechnology Association, an organisation that integrates Hungary’s green biotechnology and provides the general public with information about the role of genetically modified (GM) plants in agriculture and environment protection.

Forms and forums of recognition, prizes:
1990: Corresponding member of the HAS („MTA”); 1995: full member of the HAS; an ICRO member since 1991; an EMBO member since 2000; Honorary Professor at Szent István University and at Szeged University; Honorary Doctor at the University of Western Hungary; 1994: Körber Prize for European Science; 1995: Széchenyi Prize; 2001: Jedlik Ányos Inventors’ Prize; 2003: Foundation for Szeged (“Szegedért Alapítvány”), Scientific Board of Trustees Prize.