Ernő Rubik biography
Date of birth : 1944-07-13
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Budapest, Hungary
Nationality : Hungarian
Category : Arhitecture and Engineering
Last modified : 2022-07-13
Credited as : Inventor and sculptor, professor of architecture, inventor of the mechanical puzzles
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His father, Ernő Rubik, was a flight engineer at the Esztergom airplane factory, and his mother, Magdolna Szanto, was 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 (Iparművészeti 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 játék ("...and games"), then became self-employed in 1983, founding the Rubik Stúdió, 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 Mérnöki Akadémia). 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.
Rubik is a member of the USA Science and Engineering Festival's Advisory Board.
