Professor Laszlo Solymar (1930–2026)
16 October 2026
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of Hertford Emeritus Fellow Professor Laszlo Solymar.
Laszlo Solymar FRS was born in 1930 in Budapest, Hungary. He earned his degree from the Technical University of Budapest in 1952 and completed the equivalent of a PhD at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1956. Following the Hungarian Revolution later that year, he relocated to England, initially working in industrial research before launching an extraordinary academic tenure at the University of Oxford. He eventually became Emeritus Professor of Applied Electromagnetism at Oxford, and Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College. An entrepreneurial thinker, he also co-founded two tech spin-outs: Microsaic Systems (Imperial College, 2001) and Metaboards (Oxford University, 2017). His academic appointments included visiting professorships at universities in Paris, Copenhagen, Osnabrück, Berlin, Madrid and Budapest and a Visiting Professorship and Senior Research Fellowship at Imperial College London.
Throughout a research career spanning over seven decades of continuous publication, Professor Solymar conducted foundational, ground-breaking research and is widely recognised within the global scientific community for his pioneering contributions to applied electromagnetism, antennas, microwaves, superconductors, holographic gratings, photorefractive materials, and metamaterials. He is best known for formulating the definitive mathematical theories underlying volume holograms; his 1981 textbook, Volume Holography and Volume Gratings, remains an industry classic. In the realm of photorefractive materials, he formulated complete mathematical theories for four-wave mixing and two-beam coupling in crystals. Later, in metamaterials, he explored magnetoinductive waves, wireless power and data transfer and sensing, co-authoring the highly cited textbook Waves in Metamaterials (2009).
Over his extended career, his publication record expanded to sixteen books, including the globally referenced undergraduate textbook Electrical Properties of Materials, currently in its eleventh edition, and more than 300 papers in scientific journals.
At Oxford since 1966, Professor Solymar was a beloved lecturer and educator. Generations of engineering students were raised on his tutorials, lectures and textbooks, including senior academics active in the department today. Scores of his former research students hold senior academic positions all over the world.
Beyond academia, he was an early and fierce advocate for institutional progress. In the late 1960s, he challenged Oxford’s identity as a ‘male fortress’, openly pushing for the integration of women into previously all-male colleges – a major structural shift that the University finally began executing in 1974.
For his extraordinary contributions to engineering, Solymar was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995 and received the prestigious Faraday Medal from the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE, now the IET) in 1992.
Always bridging the gap between equations and the humanities, Laszlo famously collaborated with Oxford’s Professor of Poetry, John Wain. Together, they co-authored three radio plays centred around ancient mathematicians and philosophers, which were broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1991.
In later years, he became an active essayist and cultural contributor, publishing over a hundred articles and several books on history, politics, and civilisations.
Laszlo is survived by his daughters, Gillian and Lucy, four grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.
With thanks to Gillian Lacey-Solymar, Lucy Solymar and Ekaterina Shamonina
We will share further information about memorial arrangements as this becomes available.