Thomas Cholnoky has received his honorary citizenship

2017. August 24.

In 2016 the Senate of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics granted the title of Honorary Citizen of BME to Thomas Cholnoky. He earned special merits through support for the Civil Engineering and Architecture training.

The 94-year-old former professor of the Department of Structural Engineering lives in the United States, but his health has kept him from attending the award ceremony in the last two years. Thomas Cholnoky has managed the Dr. Imre Korányi Civil Engineering Scholarship with great enthusiasm since its foundation in 1986. He named the scholarship after the famous construction and structural engineer, a former professor and head of department of structural engineering. Each year the scholarship makes it possible for usually one young PhD academic of BME to conduct 8-10 months of research at one of the best engineering universities of the United States. To show their gratitude, some of the leaders of BME and the Civil Engineering Faculty, many of them former Korányi-scholarship receivers, decided to give the honorary citizenship award to Tamás Cholnoky in person, at a modest ceremony, organized near the home of the professor. The award was handed by the team of: János Józsa rector of the university, László Kollár vice-rector, László Dunai dean, Attila László Joó, Tamás Krámer and Tamás Lovas vice-deans.

Thomas Cholnoky graduated as an engineer from József Nádor University of Technology and Economics in 1945. From 1946 to 1948 he was an assistant professor at the I. Structural Engineering Department, teaching the Structural analysis subject. After the war he worked on the plans for rebuilding the Budapest South connective railway bridge and other structures. In 1949 he became a research engineer at the Laboratories du Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics in Paris, where he studied mainly the vibration and plasticity of concrete. From 1950 he was a design engineer at D.B.Steinman (New York), where he worked on reinforced concrete arches and long-span suspension bridges. Between 1950-54 he was the chief engineer of large tidal docks and deep quay walls at F.R. Harris (New York). He also worked on projects for the U.S. Navy, eg. reinforced concrete deck modules of aircraft carriers, but his publications were restricted at the time.

In 1951 he obtained the New York state professional engineer license. From 1954 he has been the joint owner of the Sinjon, Inc. construction company. The main profile of the company is the construction and property management of family homes, residential buildings and office buildings. In 1986 he founded the Dr. Imre Korányi Scholarship, which he had managed personally until his daughter Lisa took this work over a few years ago.

Through his outstanding and generous work Thomas Cholnoky has made a remarkable contribution to the advancement of the BME engineer training. The Korányi Scholars play an important role in the Hungarian civil engineering training and research. Many of the former receivers of the fellowship have since become professors and leaders of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics: among them 6 professors, 17 associate professors and 3 assistant professors are currently working at the faculties of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Natural Sciences; three of them are academics, four are MTA doctors, all of them holding a PhD. They play a major role in the leadership of the Faculty of Civil Engineering as well: a vice-rector, a dean, 4 vice-deans and 5 heads of department are former Korányi Scholarship receivers.

The 30 Korányi Scholarship receivers of the past 29 years:

Name, academic rank	Year	University	Current workplace
Tamás Balogh candidate, PhD	1987	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	Polivent Ltd.
István Bódi PhD	1988	University of Texas	BME, associate professor
László Dunai corresponding member of MTA	1989	Lehigh University	BME, professor, head of department, dean
László Kollár full member of MTA	1990	Stanford University	BME, professor, vice-rector
János Lógó doctor of MTA	1990	University of Michigan	BME, professor
Katalin Bagi doctor of MTA	1991	Cornell University	BME, professor
Gábor Domokos full member of MTA	1992	University of Maryland at College Park	BME, professor, head of department
István Sajtos PhD	1992	Cornell University	BME, associate professor, head of department
Béla Csíki PhD	1994	University of California at Berkeley	DCB Engineering Office, executive director
Klára Ledniczky PhD	1996	University of California at San Diego	Strusoft Kft, design engineer
Balázs Vásárhelyi PhD	1997	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	BME, associate professor
Nándor Liegner PhD	1998	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	BME, associate professor, head of department
Krisztián Hincz PhD	2001	Weidlinger Associates Inc.	BME, associate professor
György Károlyi doctor of MTA	2001	University of Arizona	BME, professor, vice-dean
Tamás Lovas PhD	2001	The Ohio State University	BME, associate professor, vice-dean
Anita Szabó PhD	2002	Stanford University	INNO-WATER Environmental Research and Services Inc., CEO
Gabriella Tarján PhD	2002	Stanford University	BME, assistant professor
Sándor Ádány PhD	2003	Johns Hopkins University	BME, associate professor, head of department
Róbert Németh	2004	Cornell University	BME, associate professor
Nauzika Kovács PhD	2006	Georgia Institute of Technology	BME, associate professor
Péter Várkonyi PhD	2006	Princeton University	BME, associate professor
László Gergely Vigh PhD	2007	Stanford University	BME, associate professor
Piroska Zaletnyik PhD	2008	The Ohio State University	BME, assistant professor
Tamás Krámer PhD	2009	NOAA Great Lakes Research Laboratory	BME, associate professor, vice-dean
Attila László Joó PhD	2010	Lehigh University	BME, associate professor, vice-dean
András Árpád Sipos PhD	2010	Cornell University	BME, associate professor, vice-dean
Gábor Jakab PhD	2011	University of California at San Diego	Michael Glatt Maschinenbau GmbH, Berechnungsingenieur
Dezső Hegyi PhD	2012	California Institute of Technology	BME, associate professor
Sándor Baranya PhD	2013	University of Iowa	BME, associate professor
Tímea Szabó PhD	2014	University of Pennsylvania	BME, assistant professor
Ádám Zsarnóczay PhD	2017	Stanford University	BME, research associate

He was a contemporary of the poet János Pilinszky, who dediacated a poem to Thomas Cholnoky:

Winter Sky

To Thomas Cholnoky

Over my head the stars above

are stirring frosty fires,

under the merciless grey sky

against the wall I recline.

Sadness trickles wavering

from my abandoned mouth.

What’s become of mother’s milk?

I’m besmirching my coat.

Like a stone, that’s what I am,

no matter what, just let it come.

I’ll be obedient, so good,

I’ll tumble on the floor dumb.

I deceive myself no more,

there’s no one to help me,

no redemption by any pain,

no god can protect me.

Nothing on earth can there be

simpler or ghastlier –

slowly coming towards me

biblical monsters appear.

Translation: N. Ullrich Katalin, source can be found here.

Magyar

Budapest University of Technology and EconomicsFaculty of Civil Engineering - Since 1782

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