Dr Pataki is currently head of the STOA Secretariat (Panel for the Future of Science and Technology) at the European Parliament's Research Service, the in-house research service and think tank of the European Parliament. STOA carries out interdisciplinary research and provides strategic advice in the fields of science, and runs technology assessment and scientific foresight projects, and organises public discussions, including workshops where politicians and scientists can discuss and compare different technological options. To raise public awareness of and interest in science and technology issues, STOA hosts an Annual Lecture, which constitutes the high point of its annual activities, attracting much publicity within EP and in the outside world.

Before joining the EP, he was with the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's in-house science service, where he coordinated various modelling activities and scientific inputs to EC-wide impact assessments. Earlier he managed a multidisciplinary team for politico-economic analyses and international nuclear relations at DG Energy (Euratom), after having worked five years in Paris at the OECD, IEA and NEA as energy and science advisor. Zsolt has background in physics, economics and geopolitics; author of several publications, and was teaching at several universities in Hungary and France.