Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 19. (Budapest, 1986)

Parasit, hung. 19. 1986 First International Conference of Protozoology in Hungary and Memorial Session for József GELEI (1885-1952) September 3—6, 1985, Budapest József GELEI was born on the 20th of August, 1885 at Árkos in Transylvania. He was the son of a peasant family. His secondary school and university studies were completed in Kolozsvár. In 1906 he was professor's assistant of István APATHY. In 1910 he worked by Prof. L. GRAFF in Graz, then he spent one year in 1911 by R. HERTWIG in Munich. Subsequent to this he worked in the embryological institute of Th. BOVER. While studying the cytology and histology of the turbellarian Dendrocoelum lacteum, he discovered the longitudinal fusion of chromosomes (1912) during meiosis, which gained him instant international recognition. The investigation of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma d

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cteum his interest turned to protozoa. He attained outstanding results in the investigation of several animal groups (e.g. Turbellaria, Cnidaria), but it was his research in the cytology, physiology, systematics, evolution and ecology of ciliate protozoa (Ciliata) that raised him among the scientists of international reputation. His outstanding achievement was to develop the so-called silver-and-gold-impregnation method of GELEIHORVÁTH (the list of his works see in GELLÉRT, J. and MÜLLER, M. : Die wissenschaftliche Arbeiten von József GELEI. - Acta biol. hung., 5:221-226, published in 1954). He was elected corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1923, and 15 years later he became full member. In 1924 he was appointed professor in the Institute for General Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the University of Szeged, where he continued work until his premature death in 1952. During the Memorial Session of his 100th birthday anniversary, homage was paid by the posterity. The honorary president of the Conference on Protozoology, academician Imre TÖRŐ, the honorary president of the Memorial Session, academician József TIGYI (president of the Biological Section of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), the secretary of the Session, Magdolna CS. BERECZKY appraised his scientific activity. Several foreign specialists in protozoology spoke of the great merit of József GELEI, among them J.O. CORLISS (USA), M.MÜLLER (USA), J.J. PAULIN (USSR), G.I. POLJANSKY (USSR), J. RAIKOV (USSR). During the memorial session also parasitological lectures were delivered by Ferenc VÁRNAI (Progress in human protozoology in Hungary) and István MATSKÁSI (History of veterinarian protozoology). From parasitological point of view the Conference in Budapest was a significant event. Besides the lectures on free-living protozoa (Section A), a rich parasitological programme has been realized. Section B- Veterinarian parasitic protozoa was divided into three subsections. In B/l - Epidemiology and faunistics, eight lectures; in B/2 - Chemotherapy of protozoan diseases, twelve lectures; in B/3 - Protozoan parasites of fishes, eight lectures were delivered. The human parasitology (Section C) was divided into two subsections. In Section C/l - Human parasitic protozoa. Amoebiasis, nine lectures; in C/2 - Malaria and other human parasitic protozoa, four lectures were held. The abstracts of lectures published in the volume: CS. BERECZKY, M. (ed. ): Advances in protozoological research. — Symposia Biologica Hungarica, 33. pp. 575, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1986.