In 1971, Prof. Rezső Bognár, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences recognized the rapid development and the outstanding power of NMR spectroscopy. He asked his young colleague, László Szilágyi to establish a laboratory applying NMR as a tool for solving chemical structural problems. With the state-of-the-art experiences as a visiting scientist in the laboratory of the Nobel laurate Jean-Marie Lehn (Strasbourg), Szilágyi successfully installed and started to use the first 100 MHz NMR spectrometer in Hungary at the Department of Organic Chemistry, Kossuth Lajos University (renamed to University of Debrecen).
The next milestone was in 1981 when the first superconducting magnet of the country was installed with the contribution of Rezső Bognár, Sándor Makleit, Pál Nánási and András Lipták professors, heads of the Organic Chemistry and Biochemical Department.
In 1995, the facility was greatly improved with a new 500 MHz magnet. After the modernization of the spectrometers, in 2008, Debrecen became a European NMR center in the frame of East-NMR project for 4 years.
The latest achievement in the facility was the installation of a Bruker Avance NEO 700 MHz NMR with a Prodigy TCI cryoprobe, financed by the European Union. The outstanding sensitivity and resolution of the spectrometer have significantly improved the capabilities of the NMR center of Debrecen.
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