Zoltan Hegyi was born in Fehértemplom, Hungary. He obtained a Master of Science degree from the University of Debrecen in 1933 and worked as a chemical engineer in chemical research laboratories in Hungary. From 1944 to 1949 he worked as an interpreter in English, Hungarian and German with the UNRRA and IRO in Germany. He then lived and worked in Brazil for the 15 years from 1949 to 1962, obtaining Brazilian citizenship. From 1964 to 1976 he worked in Australia as a chemist, also spending two years in Papua New Guinea at this time. He was a member of PEN, the Australian Society of Authors, the Árpád Academy in the USA and the Association of Hungarian artists in Canberra and was the author of books on photography and, in Portuguese, on winemaking. His work was performed in Hungarian.
