Laszlo Polos

Laszlo Polos is a distinguished Professor holding dual appointments at Károli Gáspár Reformed University in Budapest (Faculty of Humanities, Department of Liberal Arts and Art Studies) and Durham University in the UK (Business School, Department of Management). Born in Budapest in 1955, he earned his PhD in Philosophy in 1993 and has established himself as a leading scholar bridging logical philosophy and organizational theory.

His educational background includes dual MA degrees in Mathematics-Physics and Philosophy from Eötvös Loránd University (1980, 1982), followed by doctoral studies culminating in a PhD in Philosophy in 1993. He also completed Basic Dutch studies at the University of Amsterdam in 1993.

Professor Polos's research spans the intersection of formal logic and social sciences, with primary interests in Logic, Philosophy of Science, History of Philosophy, Sociology, Organization Theory, Social Science Methodology, and Cognitive Sociology. His work uniquely combines rigorous logical frameworks with sociological analysis, particularly through the application of logical semantics to organizational phenomena. This interdisciplinary approach has enabled him to develop formal theories of social forms, organizational inertia, and institutional change.

His publication record reveals a consistent trajectory from early work in logical semantics toward increasingly sophisticated applications in organizational theory. The most recent articles demonstrate his continued leadership in developing formal models of organizational phenomena, particularly in organizational ecology, structural inertia, and the mathematical foundations of sociological theory. His collaborations with leading scholars like Michael T. Hannan have produced influential theoretical frameworks that bridge disciplines.

• Best textbook Award from Ministry of Education (1987)
• Ministerial Award for Teaching Achievements (1988)
• Széchenyi Professzori Stipend of Applied Logic (1998)
• ERIM Fellowship (1999)
• Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Advance Study (2000)
• Best Paper in Mathematical Sociology Award (2003)
• Membership in European Academy of Sociology (2013)
• External Membership in Hungarian Academy of Science (2019)

Professor Polos has supervised numerous doctoral students at Durham University and Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, with recent completions including Vladimir Vladimirov (2020) and Issam Al Tawari (2020). He has directed significant research initiatives including the Institute for Formal Studies in the Social Sciences (2000-2002), Research Centre CODES (2005-2016), and served as Work Package Leader and Principal Investigator of the COMPOSITE research project of the European Commission (2010-2014). From 2009-2017, he directed the Durham Doctoral Program DBA, and since 2020 has served as Co-Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University.

His research is conducted through multiple collaborative frameworks including the Applied Logic Laboratory (ALL), Institute for Formal Studies in the Social Sciences, Center for Computer Science in Organization and Management (CCSOM), Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), Center of Organizational Dynamics (CODES), and the Comparative Police Studies in the EU (COMPOSITE) project.