Sándor Belák qualified as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Veterinary Sciences in Budapest (Hungary) in 1969.
He worked at the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in Rome and at the Foot-and-Mouth-Disease Vaccine and Diagnostic Institute in Ankara (Turkey) before returning to the University of Veterinary Sciences in Budapest, where he obtained his PhD in 1978.
In 1979, he worked for a year at the National Animal Disease Centre in Ames (Iowa, USA).
In 1985, he moved to Sweden where he is currently employed as Professor, Head of the Joint Research and Development Division of Departments of Virology (National Veterinary Institute, SVA) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), acting as an academic lecturer and examiner in virology.
In 1994 he defended his Doctor of Science (DSc) thesis at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
In 2007 he was elected as external member of this academy.
He has published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals, of which around 50 with scientific relevance to feline infectious diseases. He has authored six books and is on the Editorial board of six international journals.
He is a reviewer of numerous research foundations and has been awarded several awards, including the "Centenary Award" of the British Veterinary Association in 1989, the “George Fleming Literary Prize” in 2002and the “Thuréus prize” of the Royal Society of Sciences, Sweden in 2004.
He heads the Animal World Health Organisation (OIE) "Collaborating Centre for the Application of Biotechnology-based Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases in Veterinary Medicine ". The tasks are international standardisation, validation and training.
He is a scientific collaborator and coordinator to several international and EU research projects as well as national projects on coronavirus, influenza virus and molecular diagnostics.
He is also member of the Board of the EC European Platform for Global Animal Health. Since 2006 he is the president of the European Society for Veterinary Virology (ESVV).