Dmitrij Csetverikov, former Scientific Advisor at HUN-REN SZTAKI, has passed away

Dmitrij Csetverikov, former Scientific Advisor at HUN-REN SZTAKI and Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Informatics of ELTE, passed away on April 18, 2024.

Dmitry (to most of us just Mitya) was born on November 7, 1952 in Leningrad. His father, a geologist, was the head of the department at the Voronezh State University, and his mother was a lecturer at the department of German language and
literature there. One of his Grandfathers made a name for himself as an aircraft designer.

In 1976, Mitya graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in theoretical physics, and then began a three-year postgraduate course at the Quantum Theory department. He married Júlia Balázs in 1976. He was only able to move to
Hungary in 1978, due to family reunification, probably as a result of the lighter atmosphere following the signing of
the Helsinki Convention.

The talented, highly qualified researcher joined the then MTA SZTAKI in September 1978. He joined Tibor Vámos's group, where he was not only attracted by the IT tasks, but also really appreciated the free, democratic atmosphere that was characteristic of the entire institute and that he missed so much in the Soviet Union. He was satisfied that he had
never met with hostility in Hungary because of his Russian origin. He appreciated that he was accepted, he fell in love with our country, he also read a lot about our history, but of course he remained strongly attached to the Russian language, history and culture until the end of his life.

He advanced rapidly through the scientific ranks. In 1988, he was awarded the title of Candidate of Technical Sciences,

in 2004 he received a doctorate from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 2005 he completed his habilitation in the field of IT sciences at ELTE. Mitya's activities were gradually transferred to ELTE, where he was appointed as a
university professor, but he maintained his part-time job at SZTAKI until his retirement in 2022, after which he regularly visited the institute.

Mitya's work was recognized internationally. About 5,000 references are known to his research in the fields of shape recognition, computer vision, and texture analysis.

He was a maximalist in his work, demanding high standards both from himself and from his colleagues. He was disturbed by untidyness and unprofessionalism, and he always voiced this honestly, boldly formulating his criticisms even at high-level international conferences. He saw professional problems perfectly, was able to grasp the essence and formulate difficulties with a very good sense, even in topics far from his own field of expertise. He successfully used this ability and knowledge when judging serious international tenders, to which he was invited on numerous occasions in recognition of this.

Mitya was such a social being that although he avoided the limelight, we somehow always found him in the center. He had peculiar ideas and opinions about things, with which he often showed us and himself a crooked mirror. His ironic humor often colored the threads of serious conversations. For him, scientific research was more of an art, without which it is impossible to exist. His results mostly showed original ideas, which he was proud of and liked to talk about. He worked until the last moment and had valuable articles published even last year. He liked mathematically serious
challenges, and was always up-to-date in the theoretical field.

With Mitya's leaving, a phenomenon has left us, we will keep his memory!

His funeral will take place on May 23, 2024, at 9 a.m. in the Farkasrét cemetery. (The family suggests a seedling that can be planted on the grave as a flower.)