Similar to international developments, gerontology was also studied by researchers in Hungary in the early to middle of the last century. Sándor Korányi wrote a paper on ageing in 1927, and the first gerontological congress was organised in 1939 at his suggestion. In 1954, a Gerontology Committee was established at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and later a Gerontology Section was set up within the Hungarian Biological Society, both chaired by László Haranghy. In 1956, Hungary was admitted to the International Gerontological Society, and subsequently the first professional organisation of Hungarian gerontology, the Hungarian Gerontological Society, was founded in 1966, with Tibor Kerényi as its Secretary General (the American Gerontological Society was founded in the United States of America only in 1945). Almost at the same time, the first gerontological research group was established in Budapest under the leadership of Edit Beregi and later László Iván, at the National Institute of Rheumatology and Physiotherapy, and later at the Semmelweis Medical University (SOTE), which subsequently became the Gerontology Centre until its dissolution in 1999.
The Hungarian experimental gerontology was given a great impetus by the Hungarian Section of the Verzár Frigyes International Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology (VILEG), founded in 1979 at the University of Debrecen under the leadership of Imre Zs.-Nagy.
In 1988, the Gerontological College was established to coordinate professional work, and in 1996 the Council for the Elderly was set up to assist the government in its work.
In 2001, another gerontological society, the Preventive Gerontology and Geriatrics Society, was established under the leadership of Imre Semsei, which aims to promote the existing results of gerontology, its practical application and prevention. The Hungarian Gerontology Journal, the first written forum of Hungarian gerontological life, goes to press in the same year (editor-in-chief at the time: Imre Semsei).
Gerontology education started with the programmes of the Centre for Gerontology of the SOTE in the framework of the continuing medical education. In addition, the Scientific Dissemination Society's University for the Elderly and Professor Iván gave successful lectures at the Academy for the Elderly. In our universities, gerontology has been taught to medical students since 1998, and doctors have been able to obtain the qualification of geriatrician since 2000.