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How to find out if someone holds a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Technical University of Budapest? I know that the university changed its name to Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

He claims he got a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from that university in 1972. What I know is that he has a professional "engineering degree" from that university registered in the Engineer Association in my country. But the translation of his degree does not say Doctor nor PhD, just electrical engineer. The certificate is in Hungarian with a translation to Spanish, but translation has no word of "Doctor" anywhere.

Another thing is that I find no record of any article nor paper nor publication from him on any journal. Well obviously I can not look for in Hungarian language.

When I finished my PhD (in math), I was registered in math genealogy project and I have one paper published on a reputable math journal.

Is there a web-page similar to Math Genealogy Project for electrical engineering?

I have also written to the university but have no reply until now. I do not know also if Hungarian Universities may release records of former students.

Is there anyway to verify that person really holds a doctorate? Or how can I prove he does not have it?

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    Phd did not exist at that time in Hungary, neither doctorate programs. One could earn only university doctor or candidate degrees, whic are research thesis based. Note at that time publishing in English wasn't that common in the Eastern Block. On the other hand, I wonder what a PhD worth anyway that was taken a half century ago, in another world and was not followed up with a related career.
    – Greg
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 4:28
  • I think your best bet is to get somebody who knows Hungarian to translate it for you.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 15:33
  • You might check the university library to see if there's a thesis.
    – mkennedy
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 22:56
  • @mkennedy Scientific degrees were not under university regulation at that time, so unlikely they would have a copy of any thesis.
    – Greg
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 23:31
  • @mkennedy Yes, but they were under the regulation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at the time. There was a time where both Unis and the HAS could issue degrees, the second were much more prestigious.
    – peterh
    Commented Jan 6, 2018 at 5:41

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You could try writing to someone who teaches mathematics there --- see the course coordinators listed here. Pick someone who is likely to have heard of you (or your Ph.D. advisor, or any of your co-authors, or someone who might be marginally interested in anything you've worked on) and make sure the email subject line reflects this connection. I've done this sort of thing MANY times, even a few times in the early 1990s by postal mail. Also, try writing to a reference librarian, something I've also done successfully several times.

To hopefully not overstate the obvious, if you write to someone in mathematics (a field I chose because you said you are in mathematics), this person is almost certainly not going to know the answer to your question, but he/she should be able to assist you in locating someone who can investigate your question, and you should be clear about this in your email to any such person in mathematics.

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    I think that the most probable outcome of such a move is being ignored.
    – Massimo Ortolano
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 9:37
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If the document doesn't say "doctor" or "PhD", then for all practical purposes it can be asumed that he doesn't have a doctoral degree. The burden of proof is on him to present valid (and reliably translated) certification.

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    But beware that even if it says doctor, it might not be a PhD. For instance in my country doctor is anyone who has a Master's degree.
    – Massimo Ortolano
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 14:30
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    Can you say this for certain? The certificate is in Hungarian, from the Cold War era, and who knows how competently it was translated into Spanish? And you have no idea of the relationship of the OP to the degree holder, so saying that "the burden of proof is on him" is an unwarranted assumption.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 15:42
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    And from the perspective of an employer, you are perfectly correct. But if the OP was a prospective employer, he could ask the degree holder for clarification about his degree. And based on the fact that he asked the question, it sounds to me like he can't.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 15:46
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    @henning In many cases, employment law requires the burden of proof to be on the employer. This is highly complex and country dependent, but some examples where it's the employer's responsibility would be firing somebody because you think they lied about their credentials, and some government/public-sector hiring systems.
    – user71659
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 17:06
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    @PeterShor The degree holder gives lectures at my university. I suspect he does not have that degree because it is not registered at doktori.hu. The reason I ask is because that person gives terrible lectures and I am sure he does not have that degree due to the level of his knowledge. Doing a PhD in the US opened my eyes.
    – juan
    Commented Oct 16, 2017 at 1:10

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