Affiliation: HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest
Keywords: Geostatistics, geochemistry, stable water isotopes, water quality, spatiotemporal sampling frequency, spectral analysis
Full profile: István Gábor Hatvani obtained his MSc degree in Environmental Science in 2010 from Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, followed by a PhD in Environmental Earth Sciences in 2014, and received his habilitation in Environmental Science from the same university in 2022. He became the Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2025. Since 2014, he has been working at the Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research of the HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, where he currently holds the position of Scientific Advisor and Deputy Director. He also teaches both undergraduate and doctoral courses at the Faculty of Science, Eötvös Loránd University.
His research focuses primarily on investigating past climate changes through geostatistical and spectral analyses of geochemical and paleoclimate data series. In addition, he applies modern data analysis methods to optimize spatial and temporal sampling frequencies and to conduct comprehensive assessments of surface- and subsurface waterbodies with a special focus on (semi)constructed wetlands. As of 2025 he has co-authored more than 70 Scopus indexed papers receiving > 2000 citation, H-index: 25.
During his undergraduate studies, he was awarded the Dr. Imre Pauka Award (2010) and the Habilitas Scholarship of the Hungarian Development Bank (2011). As a doctoral student and early-career researcher, he received several recognitions, including the Junior Prima Award (2015), the Environmental Science Youth Award (2016), the Academy Youth Award and the Elemér Szádeczky-Kardoss Award (2018) awarded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Sándor Vitális Scientific Literature Award (2022). In 2017, he received the “Danubius Young Scientist Award” granted by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science, Research and Economy and the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe.
He serves on the editorial boards of the journals Open Geosciences, and the International Journal on Geomathematics. He was the secretary and later a board member of the Geomathematical Section of the Hungarian Geological Society for nearly a decade, as well as secretary of the Geological Science Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Section X. He is a member of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences. He is also a regional coordinator and steering committee member of the SISAL working group under Past Global Changes (PAGES). He is a regular organizer of international scientific conferences and enthusiastically gives public science lectures both in Hungary and abroad and currently host the science podcast series #CurrentEarthSciences in Hungarian.
He was an elected member (2020–2025) and former board member (2023–2025) of the Hungarian Young Academy, and as such led and contributed to multiple initiatives aimed at supporting early-career researchers. These included: conducting national surveys on career inequalities and working conditions; publishing policy recommendations to address systemic issues such as low salaries, overload, and lack of transparency; assessing the impact of EU fund suspensions on young researchers; and raising awareness about regional and gender-based disparities within the research community.