Rudolf Fabinyi

* Jolsva, May 30, 1849 – † Budapest, March 7, 1920 / chemist, university professor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. ; ; He completed his secondary school studies in Rozsnyó and Igló. In 1867 he became a student at the University of Pest, where he obtained a teaching certificate in chemistry and physics in 1871. He began his career in 1871 at the Department of General Chemistry of the József University of Technology, as an assistant to Károly Nendtvich (1811–1892). Thanks to a two-year state scholarship, he was able to visit the most important European laboratories of the era. He worked in the laboratories of Johannes Wislicenus in Würzburg, Zdenko Hans Skraup in Graz, and Robert Wilhelm Bunsen in Heidelberg. In 1878, he returned from Paris to study under Charles Adolphe Würtz after learning that the chemistry chair at the University of Cluj-Napoca had become vacant. Although, like many young scientists who spoke Western languages, a promising career abroad awaited him, he nevertheless decided to return home and eventually applied for the chair successfully: out of 17 applicants, Franz Joseph I appointed him as professor of chemistry at the university that would bear his name from 1881. Under the leadership of Rudolf Fabinyi, the department not only received a new building, but also acquired modern instruments through his foreign connections. In 1887, he also established a chemical experimental station, where practical (public health, industrial and technical) tests and analyses were carried out. Recognizing the importance of information transfer, in 1882 he started the first Hungarian-language journal (Vegytani Lapok) at his own expense, but it was discontinued in 1889 due to financial reasons. At the same time, he did not write a textbook for his lectures, but encouraged his students to attend his lectures regularly. Despite this, a book was compiled from them thanks to Fabinyi's teaching assistant, Béla Ruzitska, who recorded the lectures and published them in 1895 and then in 1906. ; Fabinyi dealt with many areas of chemistry, starting from analytical chemistry, physical chemistry and chemical technology, and ending with organic chemistry. He investigated the effect of electric current on synthetic processes in coal gases, and together with physicist Gyula Farkas he constructed a fuel cell, thus anticipating development by about 100 years. He also dealt extensively with dyes, and one of the reactions that took place in the production of the compound ceracidin became known as Fabinyi's salicyl-aldehyde reaction. He also patented a process for the distillation of wood. He developed a new method for determining molecular weight. However, his main and favorite field of research was organic chemistry. He studied quinoline derivatives, and in particular, he dealt more extensively with the plant substance azarone. In 1909, he launched the journal of the Hungarian Chemists' Association, founded in 1907, the Magyar Kémikusok Lap. After the change of empire in 1918, he fled to Budapest with several colleagues from Cluj, where he fell victim to the Spanish flu epidemic. ; ; His main works: ; Report on a method for the production of capronamide, 1874, ; On two isomers of mono-bromnithro-naphtalin, 1876, ; Studies on the compounds of aldehydes with phenols, 1877, ; The decomposition of acetic ethers at higher temperatures, 1883-1884, ; The new chemical institute of the University of Cluj, 1884, ; The influence of electric current on the solubility of metals, 1890, ; Stereochemical studies, 1894, ; The electrochemical theory, 1895, ; From the world of molecules, 1917.