Gerster Arpad Geza

* Košice, December 22, 1848 – † New York, 1923 / physician, American pioneer of aseptic surgery ; ; His father, who came from Switzerland, settled in Košice as a soap maker and candle maker. He began his schooling in his hometown, graduating from the German high school there. He obtained his medical degree in 1872 as a student of Professor Theodor Billroth at the University of Vienna. He practiced in Košice for two years, then emigrated to the USA in 1874 and became known as a surgeon in New York. He introduced modern methods in the surgical treatment of cancer, he was the pioneer of aseptic surgery in America. Later he was given a university chair, and in 1910 he became a professor at the famous Columbia University. Gerster was an excellent musician, but others in the family also had artistic talents: one of his sisters was an internationally renowned opera singer, and his brother was a painter. In 1917, he published a memoir in English, Recollections of a New York surgeon61, which he illustrated himself, and in it he remembers Košice and his years in Košice with warm words. According to medical historian Árpád Szállási (1929–2011), he tried to “lobby” in favor of Hungary. He also helped Hungarian immigrants, regardless of their nationality (he spoke Slovak well in addition to Hungarian, English and German). ; ; His main works: ; The rules of aseptic and antiseptic surgery, 1882.