Károly Simonyi (18 October 1916 – 9 October 2001) was a Hungarian physicist and writer. He was professor of electrical engineering at Technical University of Budapest and the author of the popular tabletop book ''A Cultural History of Physics'' (''A fizika kultúrtörténete'', 1978). He is the father of

Charles Simonyi Charles Simonyi (; , ; born September 10, 1948) is a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American software architect. He introduced the graphical user interface to Bill Gates for the first time who later described it as the first of two revolutiona ...

, a prominent computer-software executive who oversaw the creation of

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at CO ...

Biography

Simonyi was born the seventh of ten children in a small village in western

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Simonyi earned degrees respectively in

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

at the Technical University of Budapest and in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

at the University of Pecs. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he taught electrical engineering at the University of Sopron and in 1952 he became a professor at the Technical University, where he was known as an outstanding teacher and organized the Department of Theoretical Electrical Engineering. In the 1960s he lost his directorship at KFKI Physics Research Institute, his post as department head, and finally his professorial post due to the political climate in Hungary. He then undertook writing the story of the history of physics and the cultural, philosophical, and societal movements that had shaped and been shaped by its development. Károly's paternal grandfather was Sándor Simonyi-Semadam, who, as prime minister in the aftermath of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, signed the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonyi, Karoly 1916 births 2001 deaths Hungarian scientists Scientists from Budapest Writers from Budapest Academic staff of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics