Péter Várkonyi was born in 1979 in Budapest, Hungary. He got his MS (2003) and PhD (2006) degrees in architecture. Since then, he has been active as researcher in applied mathematics and classical mechanics. Currently, he is professor of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He was a research scholar at Princeton University in 2006-07, and at the California Institute of Technology in 2009-10. Dr. Várkonyi’s research interest includes contact dynamics, soft and adaptive structures, and connections between mechanics and geometry. He is co-inventor of the popular ’Gömböc’ shape.
