Dear Reader!
In 1996 an unusual initiative was launched in Hungary, which provides opportunity to highly talented high school students to do research at the best national research facilities. Since then a book containing the list of mentors helps the students to find these laboratories, institutes, workshops.
Already the first publication in 1996 listed nearly three hundred research places, while in 2008 the eleventh, expanded edition had more than 800. There are mentors in Austria, Australia, Serbia, Canada, Romania and the USA as well. The topics to be researched cover about 3000 keywords from abortion up to the synagogues.
112 members of the Academy of Sciences – including the Nobel Prize winner George Olah – are our mentors, and a number of renowned professors and Constitutional Judges support our work.
The book containing the list of mentors is distributed to the directors of each secondary school in Hungary and the surrounding countries at the beginning of each year, and more than one thousand talented students have already been personally reached. From 2012/2013 academic year on the book has been replaced by an Internet-based database to which all of our members gain access.
During the Research Student Conference on July 24, 1999 the National Research Student Association (briefly KutDiák) was founded gathering high school students involved in academic research, scientific students societies, their mentors and previous research students.
Our organization is currently under the auspices of President Janos Ader; József Pálinkás, President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Zoltán Balog, Minister of Human Resources; and Rózsa Hoffmann, Secretary of State.
Currently nearly six thousand Hungarian students from Hungary and from the neighboring countries do research in various research facilities and high-school student associations. The majority of the members of the association live in villages and small cities and more than 500 people are active in Transylvania, Upper Hungary, Transcarpathia and in Vojvodina.
Our excellent students have achieved outstanding results in American, Croatian, Irish, German and Israeli camps for gifted students.
We have joined the Ashoka International as well, where we started our South American cooperation programs. Since 2002 our best students can take part on the Nobel Prize ceremony as a guest.
Professional Departments – Introductory
The professional departments of our organization have been established to unite students who conduct research in the same scientific field and to inform them about competitions and events in their field. Students organize meetings during the year where they get the opportunity to see interesting presentations and enter into informal discussions.
The department heads and their deputies have already proven their aptitude and expertise in our competitions. If you have any questions or requests, feel free to contact the department heads, because they know the department of their science the best, the other members of the department and the ongoing researches.
One big department meeting is held annually where we welcome heartily every Research Student including members of another departments. In the last few years we visited the CSOPA science centre, visited museums, explored power plants and oil refineries, we even learned a lot about dogs used in therapies.
In every department’s life, beside meetings, another important occasion is the Research Students Essay and Poster Competition, because these are specifically organized by the heads and the deputies of the department. They assign the applicants into sections, notify them about the progress of the competition, and they invite acknowledged experts of the field as judges. The competition is concluded by a prestigious award ceremony which not only offers great programs and entertainment for the awarded participants, but also for every applicant.
If you are interested in any of our departments and would like to join one – or even more – then do not hesitate, feel free to contact us!
The Human- and Social Sciences Department is the oldest department of KutDiák. Its goal is to unite all the students who are interested in human- and social sciences or anyone who feels dedicated to conduct research. It is known that the beginning of research, topic selection or finding a mentor can be fairly hard task. This is the reason, why we want to help you to get through these problems and find the most interesting topic. To implement all these, we are planning to create an online forum, where news and articles on human- and social sciences would be shared. This can give you ideas for your research studies. You can write about your own research, give advice and comment on each other’s work on this forum. What is more, we are planning to organise a department meeting, where you can visit museums and take part in debates, presentations. We would like to introduce you alumni students, who were members of the department and they currently work in this section so you can be informed about later opportunities. Competitions organised by KutDiák are worth entering for, because the winners – aside from experience of research – get extra points at university entrance. In case you are interested in the Association or you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.
Department of Applied Sciences and Technology
The Department of Applied Sciences and Technology is one of the most recent departments in our organization. Its predecessor, founded in 2005, only included technical studies. From 2012 it welcomes students interested in applied sciences as well. The department’s program offers visits to different technical institutions, participation in meet-ups and scientific field trips. Between programs the students can keep in touch through our mailing list. Here they can share their experience, their accomplishments and discuss current scientific topics with each other. The department, which organises a lot of programmes, in conjunction with other departments plays an instrumental role in organizing our events- especially the Essay Competition.
Department of Life and Environmental Sciences
The Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (as called in Hungarian ÉKT) is the permanently popular group of the National Research Student Association. After short thinking, we came to the conclusion that most people associate notion of research with natural science, which is partly true.
Understanding the world has been the main aim of humanity since ancient times (the aim of cavemen was the second most important priority after avoiding not to be eaten by a lion). And nowadays, the workers of the natural science section, research our world in small, in big, in parts, in a whole, living or dead, etc. But what should we do if we are curious? We should formulate questions! What should we do if neither the teacher nor the Google can answer our question? If it ever happens to you, we would like to invite you to join our Association. A lot of universities, research centres, science and other labs are available throughout the country. You only have to know where to find them (Let me help you: at us!).
Approximately there are as many researches as there are many research topics on our list, so we hope that you can find your own: like biochemistry, nuclear physics, astrology, genetics, geology, ecology or anything else which I have just failed to mention. It also depends only on you, how thoroughly you want to research your own topic: maybe you will not be a permanent researcher, however, some weeks, months or years spent in the circle of specific scientists can be a great life-experience, besides this it can help the development of you scientific way of thinking (and you don not know yet where and when you will make the most of it).
Of course, it is highly advantageous to have a wide circle of acquaintances in every field (and not study). The co-operation is also important in the fields of natural science (e.g.: two laboratories can swap the partial-research results which may boil down to a huge discovery).
Among the members of this Department, a really good team was established: the wiser/older students usually help the freshmen (like me). That is why we organize department meetings every year. This year we are going to visit the Chemical Research Centre, the Research Centre of Szeged and the Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science of. During these events we can meet and work with almost every field of science because we are going to experience the overlap of chemistry, physics and biology Moreover, if we are at Csillebérc, we are going to discover the Buda hills during an eco-geo trip. Our mission is not a secret: we want to make you interdisciplinary researchers. Because we think that, if a researcher – especially if he/she is young – has to be open to the world and should not be engrossed in her/his own field.
If you are exploring a research topic, it’s worth joining us and trying our programs and competitions like TUDOK, KutDiák Scientific Essay Competition, KutDiák Scientific Poster Competition. If you have any questions feel free to contact us, and we will try to find the best solution for you. You can find our contact information below.