István Kovács (16.12.1913) is a Hungarian physicist and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1967). He was born in Budapest. He graduated from the University of Budapest (1936). From 1936 he has worked at the Technical University in Budapest (professor from 1949), and in 1950 —56 he was also director of the Central Research Institute for Physics (in 1946—48 he worked at the University of Budapest and in 1948 — 49 he was professor at the Technical University in Sopron).
His research concerned molecular spectroscopy. He studied the structure, the perturbation of spectral levels and the distribution of intensities in the spectra of diatomic molecules.
The L. Kossuth Prize (1951). The State Prize of the Hungarian People's Republic (1975).