Dr. Murai Éva - Gubányi András szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 31. (Budapest, 1998)
On the 70 th birthday of Éva Murai István MATSKÁSI and Ferenc MÉSZÁROS Dr. Éva Murai, Mrs István Kovács, a widely respected and much beloved member of the Hungarian Society of Parasitologists, celebrated her 70 th birthday on 28 November 1998. Her life-work spanning many decades has brought her recognition not only in Hungary but also internationally, although she could start dealing with her favourite discipline much later than her luckier contemporaries. Her path of life put many difficulties and obstacles in the way of her scientific career. She surmounted those obstacles with extraordinary willpower and enthusiasm. Her interest attracted her to the animal kingdom already at an early age. Like so many children interested in nature, she also started her approach to the science of zoology by collecting butterflies. She finished her primary and secondary school studies with distinction, and in 1947 she achieved a first-class schoolleaving certificate at the "Erzsébet Szilágyi" girls' grammar school in Budapest. World War II ruined the livelihood of the family; hence, after the school-leaving examination she had to look for work. She was employed by the Hungarian Natural History Museum of Budapest as a preparator trainee. She did not give up her ambitions to continue her education and, with a separate permission, took up biology studies at the university besides her museum job. She completed two semesters with distinction; however, at that time the Ministry withdrew her earlier permission. As a result, her university studies were interrupted for 12 years. During that time, she worked as a preparator in the Coleoptera collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, and took part in the scientific processing of the Cerambycidae material of the collection. It was only in 1961 that the Ministry of Education gave her permission to resume her university studies. She took her biology teacher's degree from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the "Loránd Eötvös" University of Arts and Sciences in 1966. For her thesis entitled "Faunistic and morphological study of wasp beetles (Cerambycidae) of the Carpathian Basin" she was awarded a "summa cum laude" doctoral degree. After taking her diploma, she was promoted to the post of museologist and transferred
