About us
Committed to Hungarian R&D for more than 20 years.
Our History
In the 1990s, there was a realisation that the results of scientific workshops were not being sufficiently disseminated to industrial users and were being used less, despite the fact that the demand from industry was already there. In response to this realisation, in 1998 Ede Hertelendi founded Isotoptech LP. and thus began the development of the company’s services based on research results. One of our first products and the related service package was the development of a water sampling device and associated measurement methods to support the monitoring activities of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant.
In the early 2000s, the development of our laboratory instrumentation started. We have always strived to establish the best isotopic analytical instrumentation and related measurement techniques available on the market. As a result, by the end of the decade we had a modern low background gamma spectrometer, a stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer, liquid scintillation spectrometers and a quadrupole mass spectrometer, among others, which enabled us to offer a complex package of isotopic analytical services to the market.
In 2006, Isotoptech and Atomki signed a 25-year cooperation agreement with the declared aim of putting scientific results into practice. From this year onwards, the laboratory bears the name of its tragically deceased founder, Ede Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies (HEKAL). The collaboration allowed us not only to focus on the development of the instrumentation, but also to create a modern analytical laboratory complex through infrastructural renovations, including a well-equipped electronics and mechanical workshop. As a result of these developments, by 2008 we were able to provide a complex service for the full operation of environmental monitoring systems for domestic nuclear facilities and radioactive waste repositories, and we now play a key role in supporting the safe operation of these facilities.
Since 2012, we have also been present on the international market, providing isotopic analysis services and have successfully sold our nuclear monitoring equipment abroad. We are now in active contact with nearly 400 customers in more than 40 countries.
Since 2005 we have been operating an integrated quality and environmental management system according to MSZ EN ISO 9001:2015 and 14001:2015. Since 2014, a significant part of the laboratory’s measurement services has been operating with MSZ EN ISO/IEC 17025:2018 accredited status.
We invest considerable energy in R&D proposals. We have won 10 EU proposals, 7 of which are R&D. In 2020 we successfully joined 2 H2020 proposals as a consortium member. We are the first SME in Europe to join as a research infrastructure provider for leading research teams in Europe and even the world.
As the only commercially operated laboratory, we have been included in Hungary’s TOP50 research infrastructure in 2021.
We are currently working on the establishment of an IAEA Training Centre for the classification of radioactive waste in our facility in the near future, and are developing aThermo Scientific– Isotoptech collaborationfor instrumentation and method development and, in connection, the production of specialised components.
Milestones
Get to know the history of our company, its main milestones from its establishment to the present day!
Mihály Veres
CEO
radiation protection, environmental monitoring
When we start something, let us do it only as if it were the only thing in our lives that we can do to meet our own expectations!
For me, the story begins in the 1970s in my father’s garage in a small village. I was passionate about the workshop environment, the tools, the chance to fix something. Sometimes I would build something for myself from used parts. The experience of creating, of discovery, is still a defining and indispensable part of my life! At the end of my university years, as a fresh graduate student, I met a man with a vibrant personality, wearing a tartan, two-brimmed hat. Full of vision, with a similar passion for the challenges of nature and technology as I had been infected with in the garage. It was 1998, and there was a lot missing in the way of creative work, except the will, the passion and the knowledge.
It was then, that as the child of Ede Hertelendi – still wearing the same tartan hat – and Lászlóné Sándor, ISOTOPTECH was conceived. I was there in the pre-dawn discussions before her birth – planning what we would make of her, who we would make of her – just as I was there at the moment of her birth! Then in 1999, almost as a baby, she was left half-orphaned. Then, as godfather, despite my juvenility, I felt it was my duty to take care of her and proudly took guardianship of the new-born. Many people helped me, gave me good advice on her upbringing, and some even gave her tasks to perform. I feared that she would not be able to bear these burdens and would collapse, but that was not the case. Over time, she has grown stronger, more knowledgeable and better equipped to meet the challenges. Growing up, and even as a child, she has held the hands of many talented young people, helping them to realise their ideas, write their theses and dissertations.
With her knowledge and tools, she has become one of the top 50 creative workshops in Hungary and has been recognised by academia and industry in 41 other countries. Her family and friends include a wide range of professionals from almost all fields of natural sciences. She is supported by engineers and much more than average technicians in solving problems and turning ideas into reality. The half-orphaned child now has a family of more than 50. She is much more now than her parents’ and godparents’ ideas, more than what they could have imagined only in their wildest dreams. More and more people are joining her with new ideas! I marvel that she can take almost anything, work it out, develop it and then use it. She has created and continues to shape a strong community of action. It is the diversity, the different perspectives, the outstanding knowledge from different disciplines, the innovative and often formative thinking that has made this family exceptional and I hope will continue to make it so in the future. Nowadays, many people consider her to be an adult, mature and she even has suitors. She may also be on the threshold of a new life, moving to a more suitable environment. The baby has become a beautiful bride and I am proud to be the one to walk her down the aisle. I know that she will always be faithful to her own family, to those who accepted her, loved her and wanted to do the thinking together with her. I sincerely hope that in the future she will continue to find the path that will lead her to progress, to further recognition and to successful achievements.
Our vision
New research and service centre
