Balázs Martos was born on October 1, 1952, in Budapest. In 1977, he earned a degree in electrical engineering from the Department of Digital Equipment at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Budapest University of Technology. His entire career was linked to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ SZTAKI, and later to the organizations he helped establish. He was the head of SZTAKI’s multi-microprocessor research group, the chief designer of the IBM 3705-compatible TCT 3720 remote data processing processor, and, as head of SZTAKI’s computer center, he oversaw numerous developments that led to the creation of the first Hungarian national academic network, Hungarnet. As project manager, he was also responsible for the construction of the HBONE backbone network—thereby laying the technical foundations for internet use in Hungary.

As the first administrative manager of the .hu top-level domain, he established the domestic domain registration and delegation system in 1990. Until his retirement in 2015, he was the chief organizer and manager of the stable and independent operation of the .hu zone. In 1995, at his initiative, the first Hungarian Internet Exchange center: BIX (Budapest Internet Exchange) was established for internet service providers on a neutral platform and under neutral terms.

In 1996, he founded the Council of Internet Service Providers with fourteen founding ISPs; he served as its president from 1998 to 1999 and has been its honorary president for life since 2000. Between 2000 and 2015, as managing director of ISZT Kht. and later its legal successor, ISZT Nonprofit Kft., he led the operations of the .hu registry, BIX  Budapest Internet Exchange, and HunCERT. The organizational and technical foundations he established still form the backbone of .hu domain registration and domestic peering today.

His work was recognized by the academic community in 2016 with the Hungarnet Award. In 2026, on the 30th anniversary of the Council of Internet Service Providers, he was the first to be awarded the newly established Pro Internet Award based on a vote by the membership.

He did not focus solely on infrastructure: at his initiative, the ISZT supported the Hungarian Electronic Library and the János Neumann Computer Science Society’s Exhibition of the History of Informatics in Szeged—he was not only a builder but also a guardian of the history of the Hungarian internet. For the 20th and 25th anniversaries, he personally compiled the documentation of ISZT’s history, which is one of the most important sources on the history of the internet in Hungary.

Attila Miszori, president of the ISZT, bids him farewell with these words: “In every decision Balázs Martos made, there was a very consistent standard—he always kept the long-term independence of .hu and the interests of the community in mind. For decades, he was a mentor and role model to many of us.”

The Council of Internet Service Providers and the .hu registry consider him one of their own.

May he rest in peace!