My name is László Gulyás. I was born in the south-eastern part of Hungary, in a small town called Szentes. I owe much to the intellectual atmosphere of the high school there, named after Rev. Mihály Horváth. Even though my current professional activity is not connected to what I was doing there (I was specialized in French language, but the main identifier of the school is its specialization in drama teaching), I developed my interest in the world's matters there. This interest drives my work, and it is also present in the many 'extra-curriculum' activities I'm performing.

I was also lucky to be born at the very end of 1972, for my teenage 'revolution' was in sync with the systems change my country was going through between 1988 and 1990 (BTW, during the time I went to the afore mentioned high school). Those were stirring and moving times. Both in and outside of me. I've gained a lot from paying close attention to them.

After high school I came to Budapest, Hungary's captial, to study Computer Science/Informatics. My interest in computers, however, did not start at this time. In fact, it started back in 1983, when I was only 10 years old. I was a little too brisk at home, so my father took me to the school where he taught and showed me the new tools they got. He was very successful in capturing my attention, and so was I, as soon after writing my first programs, I began to publish small programs, tips and tricks in various popular media. Later I also won a number of prizes, and sold a few games and educational programs to a software house. That made for a fine childhood (especially, the extra money! :-)), but also got me a little 'burnt out' with respect to programming. So, I put it on hold while in high school, and got the time of my life!

Now, it might be surprising that I opted to continue with computers after such a prelude. I was still interested in computers, but mostly in the theoretical aspects of programming. Also, the truth is that during high school my father and my informatics teacher talked me into participating in the National Competition in Informatics, in each of the 4 years. In the last two competitions I 'scored'. (I even got into the National Team participating at the International Olympiad in Informatics in both years.) However, what is more important here, is the magic rule in Hungary: the first 10 in such competitions gets a waiver for the entrance exam at any Hungarian university concerning the given subject. In my case this was computer science/informatics. This tells it all...

My arrival to Budapest put me into a world completely different from what I was living in during high school years. This was a metropolis and I was alone. Moreover, I was doing rather different things from what I was doing for 4 years. I was especially drowning under the amount of maths I had to learn -- here I had to pay the price for my decaying interest during high school (and for my waiver, which saved me from studying maths for the entrance exam). However, I was tough and ready to fight. By the time it was over, I was almost top of my class, so, my professional career had started. By this time I also had a wife: Anita G. Goldpergel with whom we are expecting our first child very soon.

After I got a little more relaxed, I, again, had time for my various other interests. For a while I was editing a young literary periodical. I also took part in the activities of the student organization at my institute, getting as far as being the vice-president for foreign affairs at my faculty and as being one of the organizers of the two biggest student protests during the new Hungarian Republic. On the professional side, I also took part in the preparation of the new National Team members for the International Olympiad in Informatics in a number of years. This later got me the opportunity to visit such far places on Earth as South Africa or China.

When the university years were over, it seemed obvious to continue as a graduate student. Especially, as by this time my main motivation was becoming a researcher. I started out in Artificial Intelligence, studying multi-agent systems. However, I soon got a job at the Systems Laboratory of the Central European University, Budapest, where we were modeling social systems using multi-agent systems. This gradually became my main interest. When I got a new job at the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, agent-based modeling and simulation was put on hold for a while, but only to resurface with a much stronger force. My three semesters at the Government Department/Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences also made a major impact. So much that it is my intention to carry through with agent-based modeling: developing tools, methods, and practical applications of ABM.