The prestigious award was granted by President of Hungary János Áder and presented by Péter Györkös, Hungary’s Ambassador to Germany, on Thursday. Árpád Somogyi, a renowned expert in pharmacology-toxicology, cancer research and health risk assessment, is retired director-general, university professor, external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Professor Somogyi was born in the village of Környe, in Hungary in 1937.

Having spent decades in various universities in Germany, in Canada (with world-famous Hungarian-born endocrinologist János Sellye) and in the USA as a researcher, Árpád Somogyi became the director-general of the Max von Pettenkofer Institute in Berlin, Federal Health Authority in Germany. He was founder and later head of the Unit Evaluation of Health Risks of the European Commission in Brussels. In this regards, he was initiatior of the establishment of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). He is member of the Board of Directors of the International Life Sciences Institute Europe.

For decades, Professor Somogyi has been member of many national (US-FDA, US-EPA, NCI, INRA) and international establishments (WHO, FAO, OECD), associations and foundations.

(Photo: Botschaft von Ungarn in Berlin official Facebook page)