Ervin Laszlo spent his childhood in Budapest. He was a celebrated child prodigy, with public appearances from the age of nine. Upon receiving a Grand Prize at the international music competition in Geneva, he was allowed to cross the Iron Curtain and begin an international concert career, first in Europe and then in the United States. At the request of Senator Claude Pepper of Florida, he was awarded United States citizenship by an Act of Congress before his twenty-first birthday. Laszlo received the Sorbonne's highest degree, the Doctorat es Lettres et Sciences Humaines, in 1970. Shifting to the life of a scientist and humanist, he lectured at various American universities, including Yale, Princeton, Northwestern, the University of Houston, and the State University of New York. The author, co-author or editor of ninety-one books, which have appeared in twenty-four languages, Laszlo has also written several hundred papers and articles in scientific journals and popular magazines. He is a member of numerous scientific bodies, including the International Academy of Science, the World Academy of Arts and Science, the International Academy of Philosophy of Science, and the International Medici Academy. Laszlo received the Goi Peace Award in 2001, the Assisi Mandir of Peace Prize in 2006, the Polyhistor Prize of Hungary in 2015 and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and 2005. He was elected member of the Hungarian Academy of Science in 2010. Laszlo is founder and president of the global think tank The Club of Budapest and Founder and Director of the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research in Italy.