Michael Demeczky

* Bernátfalva, May 5, 1855 – † Budapest, December 15, 1920 / mathematician, teacher ; ; He graduated from the Košice gymnasium, studied mathematics and physics at the Budapest University of Science and Technology, but also enrolled at the University of Technology. In 1877, he expanded his knowledge at several European universities (Berlin, Paris, Jena, Cambridge, Oxford) with a state scholarship. He earned a doctorate in 1877, became an associate professor in 1893, and a university professor in 1912. He taught at various gymnasiums in Budapest between 1878 and 1907. As a teacher, he “created a new method of secondary school mathematics education”. In 1895, he was appointed director of the University High Gymnasium in the 2nd district. From 1907 he became an employee of the Ministry of Religion and Public Education and, on behalf of Minister Count Albert Apponyi, he developed a plan for colleges in Hungary and the location and budget of new universities to be established in the country. Mihály Demeczky envisioned 5 new universities, the locations of which would have been Bratislava, Debrecen, Košice, Szeged and Pécs. Finally, the Elisabeth University in Bratislava and the University of Debrecen began operating in 1914, universities were only established in two other cities after 1918 (the University of Bratislava was moved to Pécs, and the University of Cluj-Napoca to Szeged), while a university was only founded in Košice after World War II. As a mathematician, Mihály Demeczky primarily dealt with number theory, and was one of the pioneers in this field of science in Hungary. His wife, Irma Volf, was a painter, and his father-in-law, György Volf (1843–1897), was a linguist and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.