Szabó Tibor – Zallár Andor: Szent-Györgyi Albert Szegeden és a Szent-Györgyi Gyűjtemény - Tanulmányok Csongrád megye történetéből 15. (Szeged, 1989)
Summary
SUMMARY ALBERT SZENT-GYÖRGYI IN SZEGED AND THE SZENT-GYÖRGYI COLLECTION By Dr. T. SZABÓ and Dr. A. ZALLÁR Preface by Dr. J. SZILÁRD and Dr. F. B. STRAUB The first part of the volume presents a study of the authors on the activities of Professor Szent- Györgyi in Hungary between 1928—1948, focusing in the 17 years spent in Szeged. They describe the most important landmarks of the period prior to Szeged and the four decades (1948—1986) in the USA. The study is based on several thousands of original documents and used, at the same time, more than one thousand Hungarian publications dealing with the life and activities of the outstanding scientist. Albert Szent-Györgyi was born in Budapest in 1893 as a descendant of a Transylvanian family. His mother was the daughter of a university professor, József Lenhossék. During the First World War, he did military service at the Russian and Italian fronts. He graduated at the Medical School in 1917 which was followed by the years of wandering: he worked in Prague, Berlin, Hamburg, Leiden and Groningen between 1919 and 1926, and in Cambridge from 1926 to 1930 where he got his Ph. D. degree in chemistry. During this period he discovered hexauronic acid (1922). It was also in that year when he was elected and appointed to professor of the Medical School of Szeged with two years’ leave to finish his research work in process. He took up his duties in 1930 as the head of the Institute of Medical Chemistry and very soon after in 1931, he discovered vitamin C. By that time he became a scientist of international reputation, member and invited lecturer of several scientific institutions abroad. He was elected to dean of the Medical School of Szeged in 1934/35, and that time he discovered vitamin P and applied it in therapy with his colleague István Rusznyák. After a number of home and international decorations and appreciations, he was rewarded with the Nobel prize in 1937. In this year he was presented with the freedom of Szeged town and conferred with a honorary degree of Szeged University. As the Rector of the University in the academic year 1940/41 he introduced numerous democratic reforms at the Medical School. He struggled against the spread of fascism at the university and established a democratic organisation, the University Youth Organization of the Medical School. His reform projects for secondary schools and universities were bold and progressive, so he was attacked by the right-wing press because of his democratic and humanist attitude. In 1942 he became the leader of the anti-fascist group bearing his name, and in 1943 he negotiated with British diplomats in Istambul on Hungary’s siding with them. He was taken under police surveillance, pursued by the Gestapo, and Hitler demanded his extradition. In 1944, after Hugary’s German occupation, he was forced to find shelter. When Hungary was rescued by the Soviet army on 10th January 1945, he and his wife become the guests of the Soviet military headquarters in Enying. From 28th April he was the director of the Institute of Chemistry of the Medical School of Budapest and was invited to the celebrations of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, USSR. At that time he worked on political and scientific-political problems of wide range. He was the president of several organisations: the Council for Public Education, the Society of Hungarian-Soviet Culture, and the Hungarian Academy of Natural Sciences. For his activities in the Hungarian war-resistant movement, he was decorated with the Silver Medal for Hungarian Liberty. At the beginning of the „cold war” in 1947, his best friend and comrade was imprisoned during 343
