ERNO RUBIK Biography - Pioneers, Explorers & inventors

 
 

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ERNO RUBIK

Name: Erno Rubik                                                                       
Born: 14 July 1944 Budapest, Hungary                                                   
                                                                                       
Erno Rubik (born July 13, 1944) is a Hungarian inventor, sculptor and professor       
of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles             
including Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Magic and Rubik's Snake.                               
                                                                                       
Erno Rubik was born in Budapest, Hungary during World War II. His Jewish Parents       
were in hiding from the Nazis. His father was a flight engineer at the Esztergom       
airplane factory, his mother a poet. He graduated from the Technical University,       
Budapest (Műszaki Egyetem) in 1967 as an architectural engineer and began             
postgraduate studies in sculpting and interior architecture. From 1971 to 1975         
he worked as an architect, then became a professor at the Budapest College of         
Applied Arts (Iparműveszeti Főiskola). He has spent all his life in Hungary.         
                                                                                       
"Space always intrigued me, with its incredibly rich possibilities, space             
alteration by (architectural) objects, objects' transformation in space (sculpture,   
design), movement in space and in time, their correlation, their repercussion on       
mankind, the relation between man and space, the object and time. I think the         
CUBE arose from this interest, from this search for expression and for this           
always more increased acuteness of these thoughts..."                                 
                                                                                       
In the early 1980s, he became editor of a game and puzzle journal called ...És       
jatek ("...and games"), then became self-employed in 1983, founding the Rubik         
Stúdio, where he designed furniture and games. In 1987 he became professor with       
full tenure; in 1990 he became the president of the Hungarian Engineering             
Academy (Magyar Mernöki Akademia). At the Academy, he created the International       
Rubik Foundation to support especially talented young engineers and industrial         
designers.                                                                             
                                                                                       
Presently he is mainly working on video game development and architectural             
topics and is still leading the Rubik Studios.                                         
                                                                                       
He is known to be a very introverted and hardly accessible person, almost             
impossible to contact or get for autographs. He typically refuses to attend           
speedcubing events. However, he attended the 2007 World Championship in Budapest.