Erno Kardos

* Bratislava, December 8, 1907 – † Budapest, January 4, 2003 / chemical engineer, food engineer, innovator of the Hungarian spice paprika industry ; ; Raised in an Evangelical family, his religious beliefs hindered his advancement in the scientific career during the socialist system. He began his school studies in his hometown, then moved to Budapest with his family in 1920, where he graduated in 1926, obtained a chemistry teacher's diploma from the university in 1931, and a doctorate in 1933. He worked as a teacher for a short time, then in 1934 he joined the National Institute of Chemistry, where he created the spice paprika certification system. In 1941 he became an employee of the National Agricultural Industrial Research Institute. Here he developed the inspection system for agricultural distilleries, and after 1945 he was responsible for initiating research into the Hungarian canning industry. From 1949 onwards, as head of the department of the Canning, Meat and Refrigeration Research Institute, which was then established, he created a new school, primarily in the quality reorganization of Hungarian spice paprika production. Between 1960 and 1968, he was the director of the Canning and Paprika Research Institute.