Honorary doctor of the Faculty of Sciences, the University of Pécs.
Professor Walter Zsilincsar graduated from the University of Graz, where he studied geography, English language and literature, philosphy and psychology. He worked as assistant professor at the Department of Geography, the University of Graz, and later he became senior lecturer. From 1983 to 2000 he was the Head of the Department of Applied Geography and since 1983 he has been professor of Geography at the University of Graz.
During his outstanding career he was a guest professor at many universities world-wide (USA, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary) and has been granted several awards and fellowships for his professionalism, including: the Research Fellowship of the Austrian Ministry of Sciences and Research, the Research Award of the Province Styria (Austria), just to name a few. He is also an Honorary Member of the Hungarian Geographical Society. He maintained close professional contacts with a dozen universities worldwide. His research fields include political geography and media relations, remote sensing methods in space research, regional and space research, geographical issues of waste and sewage disposal.
Professor Zsilincsar is proud of his Hungarian roots: his father was born in Hungary; however he could not learn to speak Hungarian. Nevertheless he honoured the audience of the University of Pécs with a short presentation of his inaugural address in Hungarian.
Promoter: Dr. István Geresdi, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, the University of Pécs