Hungarian Astronauts Return to BME for Doctoral Studies

Tibor Kapu and Gyula Cserényi have become students at BME again. The second Hungarian research astronaut and the trained research astronaut both earned their bachelor's and master's degrees at BME, and now they are starting their doctorate years.

Tibor Kapu enrolled in the Géza Pattantyús-Ábrahám Doctoral School of Mechanical Engineering Sceiences at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. His topic is developing composite systems for radiation protection applications.

"The aim is to develop intelligent fiber-reinforced composite materials and structures that, in addition to their load-bearing function, 

can significantly contribute to the radiation protection of spacecraft, thus protecting astronauts participating in future long-term space travel," 

said Tibor Kapu's supervisor, Gábor Szebényi, associate professor at the Department of Polymer Engineering, who was also his degree thesis advisor at the time.

Tibor Kapu receiving his master's diploma in 2016 from then rector Tibor Czigány

Gyula Cserényi has been enrolled into the Doctoral School of Electrical Engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics. His topic is the optimization of onboard systems for CubeSat and PocketQube class satellites. This means that 

he will be working on satellite orientation determination and stabilization, among other things. 

His supervisor is Levente Dudás, associate professor at the Department of Broadband Infocommunications and Electromagnetic Theory.

Gyula Cserényi receiving his master's diploma in 2014 from then dean László Vajta

The Axiom 4 mission

As a research astronaut in the HUNOR program, Tibor Kapu spent more than 20 days in space between June 25 and July 15, 2025, aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the International Space Station as part of the Axiom 4 mission. He conducted numerous scientific experiments, including some prepared by BME researchers. Meanwhile, Gyula Cserényi supported the work on the space station from the control center in Houston, Texas.

Currently more than 700 doctoral students study in BME's twelve doctoral schools. The next admission period starts in April, details can be found here.

BME's latest achievement in space technology was the launch of its sixth student satellite, which carried numerous scientific instruments and experiments into space. With this successful launch, the university's development team now has the most successful PocketQube-category satellite missions in the world.

Rector's Office, Communications Directorate