Róbert Tuba earned his MSc in Environmental Engineering in 1998 and his PhD in 2003 from the University of Veszprém (now the University of Pannonia, UP).
He spent a year as a researcher at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), focusing on homogeneous catalysis and green chemistry. In 2003, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
From 2005 to 2010, he was involved in industrial R&D, focusing on pharmaceutical research and development at Richter Nyrt. and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. In 2011, he moved to Texas A&M University, working as an assistant research scientist at both its Doha (Qatar) and College Station (Texas, USA) campuses.
In 2012, he joined the research group of Nobel laureate Prof. Robert H. Grubbs, contributing to metathesis research. Over four years, he worked at the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) as a visiting associate scientist and Texas A&M University at Qatar. In 2015, he returned to Hungary, established his own research group, and launched his independent research career.
In 2022, he was a Fulbright Scholar at Yale University’s Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. That same year, he received a Humboldt research grant under the Alexander von Humboldt Research Linkage Program in Germany. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious HU-RIZON research grant at the University of Pannonia.
In 2024, he earned his DSc degree and was appointed as a scientific advisor at the Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN), Research Centre for Natural Sciences (RCNS). He is currently the head of the Green Chemistry Research Group at HUN-REN, RCNS and serves as the scientific leader of the Plastic Chemical and Mechanical Recycling Project at the Waste Management Competence Center, University of Pannonia. Additionally, he represents Hungary in the Pan-European Network on the Sustainable Valorization of Lignin (LignoCOST) and is a council member of the European Federation of Catalysis Societies (EFCATS) as well as a member of the management advisory board of Technology Transfer Labs, TTL USA INC.
His primary research interests include organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis, particularly the development of next-generation olefin metathesis catalysts and their applications in green chemistry. His research group’s most significant achievement is the development of BICAAC-Ru olefin metathesis catalyst systems, which facilitate the "open-loop" recycling of polyethylene via isomerization metathesis (ISOMET). This groundbreaking process enables the chemical recycling of persistent polyethylene plastic waste into propylene.
