Born in Budapest on April 17, 1951. His father originated from the North-West of Hungary while his mother came from Transylvania. He graduated at the renowned secondary school ‘Szent István’ then at the University of Gödöllő near Budapest. His academic activity was connected to the latter institution: the first area of research was dealing with the metabolism of Vitamin A then his interest turned for more then a decade to the population ecology of wild animal species especially that of the European hare. The results of that period are summarised in a Thesis (Candidate of Sciences – a scientific academic qualification dating from the East-European communist era, these days officially equivalent to the PhD, unofficially slightly more elevated than the PhD but somewhat less than the Doctor of Sciences). The subject was also published in a book with himself as primary author [Kovács Gy. – Heltay I. (1985): The European hare: ecology, management and hunting]. At that period he was the first in the field to use the tool of radio-telemetry in Hungary for studying the home ranges of wildlife species (Roe deer, European hare). He elaborated post mortem methodology for age estimation (based on bone cementum annuli) and fecundity (based on placental scars) of the European hare and statistically tested their accuracy. He also established a harvest model based on Maximum Sustainable Yield, MSY. He was the leader of a nation-wide project concerning aerial big-game census between 1989 and 1995. On that latter subject he published a book with his co-author [Demeter András – Kovács György (1991): Estimation of Population Density and Population Size of Animal Populations, Akadémia Kiadó]
He was the Deputy General Director of Budapest Zoo between 1989 and 1994. His name is associated with the integration of the Budapest Zoo into the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, EAZA and into the International Species Information System, ISIS. He initiated the ‘Adopt an Animal’ program in the Budapest Zoo which is still a popular and relevant issue. He had well defined ideas (‘Zoo without fences’) concerning the renewal of the very old fashioned type Zoo at that time, however, he was not given the opportunity at that time (1993) from the City of Budapest to realise it.
The Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Barrage Project (GNBP) characterised the third phase of his professional life: from October 1994 he was the senior scientific co-ordinator responsible for the preparation of the scientific supporting materials of the Hungarian Party in the case before the International Court of Justice at the Hague. He was the scientific leader of the site visit by the International Court of Justice on the Hungarian side in the spring of 1997. He did not participate in the negotiations led by Government Commissioner Nemcsók which commenced in a hidden – out of court – fashion and then continued publicly shortly following the Judgement. From 1998 until 2002 he assisted the new Government Commissioner, László Székely and his team as an independent expert. Between 2004 and 2010 he led the Office of the Inter-departmental Commission responsible for the GNBP in Hungary during that period. As its Secretary he was the member of the governmental delegation, Hungarian-side leader of an expert working group and the Hungarian co-president of the Steering Committee of the Joint Hungarian-Slovak Strategic Environmental Assessment Established by the Governmental Delegations of the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project from 2007. Under his leadership an international working group produced all of those Hungarian studies that were agreed by the parties: among others a detailed scientific analysis on the possible rehabilitation measures of the Szigetköz (Feasibility Study: The Rehabilitation of the Szigetköz Reach of the Danube , February, 2010). The day after the study was electronically handed over to the Slovak co-president an article in a Hungarian newspaper, without any factual references, triggered the then Minister for Environment and Water, in order to save his position, to side with the still unknown attackers and brought a halt to the Hungarian perspective which, again, pushed back the Hungarian position. The rehabilitation concerning this latter event was initiated by the Minister of Justice only in 2016 in a letter sent to Dr. György Kovács emphasising that the above mentioned study was continualy the dominant document concerning the governmental negotiations at that time.