Technikatörténeti szemle 25. (2001-02)

Szabadváry Ferenc professzor akadémikus köszöntése 80. születésnapja alkalmából (műveinek bibliográfiájával)

We congratulate Professor Ferenc Szabadváry, Corresponding Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Editor-in-Chief of Technikatörténeti Szemle (Review of History of Technics), former Director General of the Hungarian Museum for Science and Technology for 22 years on the occasion of his 80st birthday Ferenc Szabadváry was born in Kőszeg in a family of manufacturers on 1st September 1923 as first son of four children. He attended the Benedictine monks' secondary school in Kőszeg, where his special interest in history and languages clearly appeared. However, for university studies from 1941 to 1945 he joined Budapest Technical University as he was designated to lead the family soap factory later. History interfered with his life as soon as during his university studies: in 1944 the Technical University was transferred, from before the approaching front, to Germany where - instead of the siege of Budapest - the air bombardment of Dresden was his share. In spite of that he has remained faithful to Budapest Technical University for 62 years now. At the beginning he dealt here with analytical chemistry at the Department headed by professor László Erdey. A question of one of his students gave him the impetus to start dealing with the history of chemistry, of which discipline he soon became an outstanding scholar, then later a school founding professor in Hungary. His career started slowly, but after 16 years of university assistantship he became, from the mid 1960s on, he became Candidate of Sciences of the Academy (C.Sc), Doctor of Sciences of the Academy (D.Sc.) and professor in quick succession. He gained world fame with his book "History of Analytical Chemistry", the English version of which was published several times. For this work of his he obtained, in the United States, the Dexter prize in 1970 as first continental European. For his disciples his work on "The history of chemistry in Hungary" that appeared in 1972 with the late Zoltán Szőkefalvi-Nagy as co-author, became an everlasting source and handbook. This work, too, is ripe for being published again. Beside books and chapters of books, the fertile author published 382 papers in domestic and foreign journals. His lectures were made particularly attractive by their clear wording and kind humor, sometimes self-irony. Independently of any school, he joins knowledge of natural and social sciences in a highly effective way, characteristic of him solely. In many of his great lectures we have been able to admire till today his wide knowledge of languages, his near to infinite encyclopaedic knowledge. In 1971 he joined the Group for Collection and Registration of Technical Monuments, which was organized two years later - just 30 years ago - into the Hungarian Museum for Science and Technology under his leadership. It is due to