Lajos Bartko

* Zólyombrézó, May 6, 1911 – † Budapest, July 2, 1988 / geologist, paleontologist ; ; He graduated from Miskolc and then continued his studies at the Budapest University of Science and Technology in the field of geography and natural history. He obtained his teaching certificate there in 1936. From 1937 he was an unpaid intern at the Geological Institute of the university, from 1939 he was an assistant professor, later an assistant professor, and then worked as a department geologist. In 1949 he was employed as a chief geologist at the Coal Mining Trust. In 1956 he was transferred to the Ministry of Coal Mining. In 1958–1960 he was a department head at the National Geological Directorate. Between 1960–1971 he led the mining geological research at the Nógrád Coal Mines as a chief geologist. He retired in 1971, after which he worked as an expert at the Geological Institute. He was the secretary of the Hungarian Geological Society. The focus of his work was on mapping the Triassic and Tertiary sedimentary areas, during which he discovered the medicinal water later bottled under the name Jodaqua in Sóshartyán in 1948. The most significant of his paleontological and stratigraphic research is the excavation of the Ipolytarnóc fossil site. In 1939, he discovered an ancient snail species that preceded the mass appearance of related mollusks by about 100 million years. His work was recognized with the Antal Koch Memorial Medal. Its discoverer named a 19 million-year-old fossilized walnut species (Carya bartkoi) after him. He is a co-author of the handbook The Geology of Our Mineral Deposits (1966).