Hungary’s President Tamás Sulyok has appointed Charaf Hassan, the former dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) as the new rector of the university.
Charaf Hassan assumed the rector's chain of office from the outgoing rector, Tibor Czigány, on July 1. The event was attended not only by members of the university's senate but also by Minister of Culture and Innovation Balázs Hankó and Veronika Varga-Bajusz, State Secretary responsible for higher education, vocational training, adult education, and youth.
Born in Lebanon, Charaf Hassan completed his university studies at the BME, earning degrees in electrical engineering and engineering economics. Since 1996, he has been a member of the Department of Automation and Applied Informatics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics at BME. In 2016, he became the head of the department, and from 2019 onwards, he served as the dean of the faculty. His term as rector will last for five years.
His scientific, development, and educational activities have been connected to software development since 1992. He was among the first to introduce mobile programming into university curricula and has initiated numerous international research and development projects related to mobile applications. He is also credited with launching the university-level industrial engineering informatics program in collaboration with industry.
Since 2023, Charaf Hassan has been a member of the Governing Board of the HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network, participating in the work of the Artificial Intelligence Coalition and the Hungarian Innovation Association. The Governing Board is the main decision-making body of the HUN-REN Center, with its chair appointed by the Prime Minister on the joint recommendation of the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Minister responsible for science policy coordination. The primary tasks of the board include increasing the measurable effectiveness of the Hungarian Research Network and positioning it in the international scientific arena. Balázs Gulyás has been leading the Research Network (and its Governing Board) since May 1, 2023. The board is also responsible for issuing the operational documents for research sites, establishing the strategic principles of HUN-REN, defining and supervising the directions and objectives of research, and distributing grants.
Congratulations to Charaf Hassan on his appointment as rector!