The Hungarian Academy of Sciences will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2025. Among its members are many distinguished students and teachers who have left their mark not only on the Academy but also on the history of our institution. Zoltan Bay (1900–1992) physicist, university professor was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1945.
Zoltan Bay completed his secondary school studies at the Reformed College of Debrecen, and then at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of our University. Under the influence of his role model, Loránd Eötvös, he decided to pursue research in the natural sciences. During his university years, he was a member of the Eötvös Collegium, and later became an assistant professor in the Department of Theoretical Physics at the university. In 1926 he obtained a doctorate in physics with the highest distinction, sub auspiciis gubernatoris. After years at the University of Berlin and the University of Szeged, he habilitated at the University of Budapest in 1936. He continued his research work in the laboratory of the United Incandescent Company and at the Technical University of Budapest. During this period, he was awarded patents for several inventions, such as the development of high-voltage gas pipes and radio receiver circuits. He was the first person in the world to apply the principle of secondary electron multiplication to atomic counting, and today it forms the basis of all the techniques used in fast atomic counting. During the Second World War, he organised a resistance movement and undertook the construction of a secret radio transmitter. In December 1946, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Order of Freedom, together with Albert Szent-Györgyi, for his wartime activities. In the summer of 1945, he and his research team began the first experiments in Europe to detect radar echoes from the Moon. The distance measurements that could be made with this method have greatly improved our knowledge of distances in the solar system. Forced to emigrate in 1948, he became a professor of experimental physics in the United States of America, working with Albert Szent-Györgyi and János Neumann. From 1955 he worked at the National Bureau of Standards, primarily working for the introduction of a length unit standard based on the speed of light. Measurement played an extremely important role in his work. He has played a decisive role in the development of modern measuring techniques, including the development of extremely accurate time and length measurement procedures. His results have contributed significantly to the development of space technology and the Global Positioning System (GPS). Part of his legacy is preserved in our archives.