John Halmai

* Nyitra, March 3, 1903 – † Budapest, July 23, 1973 / medicinal chemist, pharmaceutical historian, university professor ; ; In 1921–1922 he was a pharmacist trainee in Bonyhád, then obtained a pharmacy degree from the University of Budapest (1925). He worked in rural pharmacies until 1927. He began his scientific career at the Institute of Botany of the University of Budapest. He obtained a doctorate in pharmacy (1935). From 1939 he worked at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 1942 he obtained a university private teacher qualification. From 1949 he was head of the Department of Herbal Medicine and Drug Sciences, from 1957 to 1971, until his retirement, he was a university professor. Founder of the Department of Pharmaceutical History of the Hungarian Pharmaceutical Society. His scientific work encompassed pharmacognosy and the history of pharmacy. He mainly studied the methods of drug identification, value measurement, and detection of counterfeits, and he also played an important role in the standard specifications for medicinal plants. He is the editor of the pharmacognosy section of the V. Hungarian Pharmacopoeia and the chairman of the pharmacognosy subcommittee of the VI. Hungarian Pharmacopoeia. His nearly one hundred publications dealt with, among other things, the great figures of Hungarian and international pharmacy. In several studies, he dealt with pharmacists, pharmacies and the general situation of pharmacy during the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848/49. He received the Kabay (1956) and the Weszprémi Memorial Medal (1966). ; ; His main works: ; The Question of Drug Self-Sustainability, 1942, ; Kossuth Star, Rhinstone Rod. Medicinal plants, plants, drugs, Hungarian folk and Latin names, 1948, Pharmacy and pharmacists in our country in the first half of the 19th century (candidate's thesis), 1955, ; Pharmacognosy (with István Novák), 1963.