Brief bio of erno rubik
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The Hungarian letter "ő" is a long version of the vowel "ö" and is pronounced similarly to the German "ö" in "schön" but held longer.
He graduated from the Technical University, Budapest Faculty of Architecture in 1967 and began postgraduate studies in sculpting and interior architecture. His interest in three-dimensional objects played a large part in his creation of the Rubik’s Cube.
Born in Budapest in 1944, his father was an engineer and glider designer; his mother was a writer and artist. Rubik pursued sculpture for a time before studying and earning a degree in architecture in 1967. In addition, its success is said to have helped Hungary along on its path to a free economy and its inventor continues to be seen as somewhat of a national hero.
In 1987 he became professor with full tenure; in 1990 he became the president of the Hungarian Engineering Academy. But by 1983 the fad cooled down, partially because of market saturation and pirated versions being sold in foreign countries. He has been recognized for his contributions with numerous prestigious awards, including the Kossuth Prize and the Dennis Gabor Award.
Eventually Ideal Toy sold its rights. He excelled in this field as well, graduating as an architect.
Career in Architecture and Puzzle Design
For many years, Rubik dedicated himself to architecture and design. The device that became popular with the masses in the 1980s was created a decade earlier by Hungarian designer Erno Rubik.
The cube became an instant success, selling millions of copies and transforming Rubik's life forever.
Other Notable Inventions and Achievements
Inspired by the success of the Rubik's Cube, Rubik continued to create innovative puzzles. Rubik’s cube was the one noticed in 1978 by Hungarian Tibor Laczi, who brought the device to the Nuremberg toy fair and had soon secured an order for one million of them from a British company, Ideal Toy.
That’s when the name of the toy was changed to the “Rubik’s Cube,” and the West first became familiar with the puzzle.
A magazine cover featuring a picture of a Rubik’s Cube when mathematician Douglas Hotstadter wrote an article on it for Scientific America created the initial media buzz. He started a design cooperative known as the Rubik Studio, and he has produced several other games and puzzles.
He had originally thought of putting a three-column cube together as a challenge to himself to see if he could find a way of moving individual parts without each of them losing their connection to the whole.
(One can see his design today by taking a Rubik’s Cube apart.) Each of the faces of the cube would be one solid color at the start. In the early 1980s, he began working as an editor for a magazine that featured puzzles and brain teasers. Following his cube’s popularity, Rubik opened a studio to develop designs in 1984; among its products was another popular puzzle toy, Rubik’s Magic.
Later career and other works
In the early 1980s, he became editor of a game and puzzle journal called ..Es jatek (...And games), then became self-employed in 1983, founding the Rubik Studio, where he designed furniture and games.
This sparked his interest in creating his own logical puzzles.
Invention of the Rubik's Cube
In 1974, Rubik invented the iconic Rubik's Cube, a 3D puzzle that has captivated generations of people worldwide. In 1977, he invented the Rubik's Snake, and in recent years, he has unveiled Rubik's 360, a spherical puzzle that is predicted to rival the popularity of its cubic predecessor.
Educator and Academy Founder
Rubik's passion for education drove him to establish the Hungarian Technical Academy in the early 1990s.
However, his interests extended beyond engineering, and he subsequently pursued studies in sculpture and design. Rubik was reportedly inspired to use rounded elements for the center core of the cube one day in 1974 while he was noticing the smooth, polished, rounded stones by the banks of the Danube River.
Before long Rubik had completed a prototype with cylindrical parts connected to each cube component that gave the desired effect.
This academy continues to nurture the talents of young minds in Hungary.
Current Endeavors and Accolades
Today, Professor Ernő Rubik is involved in the development of video games and publishes articles on various topics related to architecture.