Dr. Károly Rózsa (1939-2017)

“Wherever I was, I always felt good about having a country. I think that if I didn not study
Hungarian, I did not think Hungarian, I would have taken it less. I think the whole way of
thinking, logic, the structure of the Hungarian language is something wonderful that we
cannot really appreciate .”


He is one of the pioneers and dominant figures of laser research in Hungary, whose
scientific work is qualified by more than 200 publications. Undoubtedly, it played a decisive
role in the fact that since the construction of the first laser in Hungary in 1964, Hungarian
laser research has been at the forefront of the world for the past fifty years. In addition to
basic research, he has always considered it important that the results of his scientific work
also improve people's everyday lives. This idea was also led when he invented in the early
2010s how to tame laser light, to eliminate its dangerous properties to the eye: this is how
Safe Laser Technology was born, which revolutionized soft laser treatments.
He studied to be a chemical engineer, but spent more than fifty years doing physical
research. In addition to the family, the Central Physical Research Institute (KFKI) was its
second home, where, in addition to experiments in optics, it focused most on laser
research.


The II. in the year of the outbreak of World War II. He lost his parents as a child, and was
raised in the countryside by his maternal grandparents who moved from Transylvania. In
the 1950s, overcoming the disadvantages of his origin, he was admitted to the Petrik Lajos
Chemical Technical School due to his excellent academic results. “I’ve become a great
teacher, I’m grateful for the fate of being able to learn physics and chemistry from the
nationally renowned Tibor Papp, for example,” he recalled in an interview.
After graduating, he worked as a chemical technician in a paint factory. Tibor Mátrai brought
the big turning point in his life: when he got to KFKI, he talked him into going to university. In
addition to his work, he graduated from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the
Technical University in the evening, but he never became unfaithful to KFKI. As a researcher
and visiting professor, he has worked with some of the best physicists of the age in the
United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Austria, and the Soviet Union. He always had a good
time everywhere, but he loved coming home.


“Wherever I was, I always felt good about having a country. I think that if I did not study
Hungarian, I did not think Hungarian, I would have taken it less. I think that the whole way of
thinking, logic, the structure of the Hungarian language is something wonderful that we
cannot  really appreciate, ”he often explained to his students, to whom he no longer boasted
that he had learned perfect English in a year, practically from a dictionary.
In addition to laser research and family, sports have filled his life. He played volleyball at a
young age, later sailing, skiing and hiking became the dominant ones, teaching more than a
hundred people to sail. He didn’t consider himself talented in the sport, but he was able to

concentrate legendarily on what he used most in table tennis: he was already 70 years old
when he was still playing for the KFKI team.

Scientific research, field:

1963- Acquisition of knowledge of optical spectroscopy, vacuum technology and gasdischarge for the study of the spectra of diatomic molecules in the Department of
Aspectroscopy.

These research experiences led him to launch research on gas lasers, which he has been dealing with ever since. 

He developed the world's first cathode-sputtered resion laser. He was the first to create a laser phenomenon in voltage-controlled hollow cathode discharges.


University diploma thesis
- He-Ne gas laser technology and spectroscopy

University doctoral dissertation

Laser spectroscopy,
Candidate's dissertation

Gas discharges designed for laser purposes
Academic Doctoral Dissertation

Research on distant ultraviolet lasers generated in gas discharges developed for laser
purposes
Visiting researcher, visiting professor

Soviet Union: Lebedev Physical Research Institute, Moscow
Austria: University of Innsbruck
Japan: Institute of Ion Physics Ibaraki UnivesityNagoya University

Australia: Monash University
Canada: McMaster University
USA: University of Arizona, University of New Mexico - Los Alamos Natl. Lab, Colorado State
University, JILA, (U. of Colorado and NIST)
Patents

3 patents on gas laser construction
a patent for a polar light lamp (construction and application) (co-owner of the BIOPTRON
lamp patent)
He performed the first successful polarized-lantern healing treatment under the supervision
of Dr. Katalin Csizmadia.