He was born in Miskolc (Hungary), drafted for service by the Hungarian army in 1942, and deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in October 1944.
He was liberated in bad health by the American army in April 1945, and returned to Budapest in August 1945 where he finished his BSc degree from the Eötvös Loránd University in 1952.
Without finishing his PhD, in 1956 he escaped to Austria and finally he arrived in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) in February 1957 and established himself in Edmonton (Alberta).
There he worked for his PhD at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Harry E. Gunning, He obtained the degree in 1962.
His research focused initially in gas-phase chemical kinetics and photochemistry working in detection and study of intermediates as thiirenes, carbynes, cyclobutadiene, using new techniques like laser-flash photolysis, etc., publishing over 300 articles in chemistry journals and was editor of several of them, organized important symposia and was a member of many international scientific committees.