Tibor Kolbenheyer

* Rimaszombat, September 12, 1917 – † Košice, March 9, 1993 / geophysicist, astrophysicist, university professor, honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1979) ; ; He completed his secondary schooling in Losonc. From 1935 to 1938 he studied physics, astronomy and mathematics at the Charles University in Prague, and from 1938 at the Pázmány Péter University in Budapest. He completed his studies in 1940 and received his doctoral degree in 1941. From 1941 to 1942, then from 1944 to 1947, he was a colleague of the Svábhegyi Csillagvizsgáló, and in parallel, between 1942 and 1945, he worked as a geophysicist in the Kaposvár group of the Hungarian–American Oil Industry Co. (MAORT) carrying out gravity measurements. In 1947, he returned to Czechoslovakia and worked at the Slovak Geological Institute in Bratislava until 1951, then in 1951–1952, he was a colleague of the Ore Research Institute. From 1952, he gave geophysical lectures at the Comenius University in Bratislava and participated in the organizational work surrounding the founding of the Technical University of Košice. In the 1953/1954 academic year, he served as dean of the technical university, and from 1955 to 1963 as rector. In parallel, in 1953, he founded the Geophysical Research Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, whose work he managed as director until 1962. From 1966, he was a professor at the Department of Theoretical Physics and Geophysics at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, also in Košice, and between 1969 and 1972, he also served as dean of the institute. ; At the beginning of his scientific career, he was attracted to astrophysics, and he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the equilibrium state of galactic star clusters, and also dealt with the dynamics of asteroids and comets. From the late 1940s, his research was exclusively focused on geophysical issues, mainly investigating gravitational anomalies and conducting extensive gravimetric research in southern Slovakia. Combining his gravitational research with geoelectrical investigation methods, he successfully explored the utilizable raw material reserves hidden deep in the earth, and among other things, he is also responsible for the discovery of the Patakalj magnesite deposit. His theoretical work and calculations on the behavior and dynamics of two- and three-dimensional magnetic fields are also significant. He became a full member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1972. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him an honorary member in 1979. He published more than 60 scientific papers in Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and other foreign journals. ; ; His main works: ; On the Equilibrium of Galactic Star Clouds and Clusters, 1941; On Comets, 1942; The Dynamics of the Milky Way System, 1942; Astronomy in the Atomic Age (with Györgyel Kulin), 1946.