The decade after the Second World War was the heyday of nuclear research, as it became a field of great power rivalry. Sándor Szalay, head of the Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Debrecen and head of the Institute of Nuclear Research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, made good use of the situation and was able to employ many good specialists, including some who had been pushed aside by the state authoroties of time. However, Ernő Zichy, a chemical engineer who had previously been punished by deportation, was not able to get a job at any of his institutes because of his aristocratic background.