József Gayer holds a MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Budapest and a PhD in Urban Water Management from the Corvinus University of Budapest.

He started his career in 1972 as design engineer then joined the Water Resources Research Centre (VITUKI) in 1976. His fields of research were water machinery, hydraulic investigations, urban hydrology and drainage. He also lectured hydraulics and hydrometry and served eight years as Director of the International Post-graduate course on Hydrology. In 2005 he joined the Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water, and worked on the implementation of EU Water Framework Directive. He also worked for the EU Presidency of Hungary in 2011 chairing a Working Party on International Environment Issues of the European Council. He contributed to the development of the National Water Strategy as secretary of the Scientific Advisory Board in 2015-2016.

Between 2011 and 2018 he was the Chair of GWP Hungary Foundation and currently he is member of the GWP’s global level Steering Committee.

József Gayer is member of the Hungarian Hydrological Society, the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, the Scientific Committees of the General Directorate of Water Management and of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and author and co-author of around 100 papers, lecture notes and book chapters in different fields of water management. He is editor in chief of the English-Hungarian online water glossary.