Miksa Hantken

* Jablonka, September 26, 1821 – † Budapest, June 26, 1893 / geologist, paleontologist, university professor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1874) ; ; He completed his high school studies in Teschen, his college studies in Vienna in 1840–1842, and from 1843 to 1846 at the Mining Academy in Bánya Selmec. In 1844–1845 he was an apprentice at the ironworks of Archduke Albrecht. In 1846–1849 he was a mine officer in several mines. In 1849–1850 he studied analytical chemistry in Vienna, then worked at the Dorog coal mine. At this time he married the daughter of the mayor of Dorog, Ida Hoblik. He served the Serbian government for a few years. In 1858 he settled in Pest and conducted paleontological research there. In 1861–1867 he was a teacher at the Pest Commercial Academy, and from 1866 he was the keeper of the mineral and fossil collection of the MNM. In 1869 he organized the Hungarian State Geological Institute, which he led as director from 1870 to 1881. In 1876 he obtained a private teaching qualification at the University of Pest. From 1882 until his death he was a university professor at the Department of Paleontology. He was the initiator of paleontological research in Hungary, the first internationally significant personality of science. At the beginning of his scientific career, in Dorog, he dealt with coal research and rock stratigraphy, and was then among the first to recognize the importance of paleontology in the structure and age determination of a geological site. In order to dissect the Eocene stratigraphic sequences containing the coal deposits of the Dorogi Basin and to identify the deposits, he began paleontological studies, primarily the study of the so-called Foraminifera, which belong to the group of unicellular organisms, the remains of which occurred in large quantities and in great variety in the barren rocks. His internationally outstanding achievement was the clarification of the stratigraphic role of Foraminifera. His observations on the successive generations of the large Foraminifera, the Nummulites ("Saint Ladislaus' money"), are particularly valuable. He won a prize at the Vienna World Exhibition (1873) with his collections of polished and determined specimens of Nummulites species from different stratigraphic levels, and achieved great success at the World Geological Congress in Bologna (1881). By studying the Nummulites, he placed the research on Eocene lignite in Hungary on a new scientific basis, and with his paleontological descriptions, he was the first to prove the sexual dimorphism of this fauna internationally. His monograph on Foraminifera (1875) contains descriptions of 213 species, of which 93 were new to science. Among his other works, he stands out; also his book describing the lignite occurrences of Dorog (1871) and his work reviewing the coalfields and coal mining of Hungary (1878). The standardization of the color key of geological maps was adopted on his proposal (1881), and his microscopic examinations of limestone (so-called microfacies analysis) are also considered pioneering. The animal genera Hantkenia and Hantkenina also preserve his memory. He prepared the first practically significant summary of the Hungarian coal deposits. In his honor, the Hungarian Geological Society established the Miksa Hantken Memorial Medal, which is awarded every three years in 1963, for outstanding achievements in the field of paleontology and stratigraphy. ; The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1864 and a full member in 1874. ; ; His main works: ; The geological conditions of the Esztergom brown coal area, 1871, ; The Hungarian coal, 1873, ; The geological age of the Beocsin marl, 1873, ; New data for the geological and paleontological knowledge of the southern Bakony, 1874, ; The fauna of the Clavulina-Szabói strata I., 1875, ; Additions to the geological knowledge of the Carpathians, 1877; Coal deposits and coal mining in the countries of the Hungarian crown, 1878; New data for the geological and paleontological knowledge of the Buda-Nagykovácsi mountains and the Esztergom region, 1884; Opinion on the Várpalota coal mine, 1888.