Ferenc Kovessi

* Érolaszi, March 18, 1875 – † Budapest, January 13, 1945 / plant physiologist, biologist, university professor ; ; He began his studies at the Debrecen Institute of Economics, then continued at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he obtained his doctorate in 1901. Later, he studied physics, chemistry and mathematics here and at the University of Budapest. After returning home from his study trip abroad, he became a viticulture supervisor, and then for 15 years, between 1904 and 1919, he was a professor at the Department of Botany at the Selmecbánya College. He achieved significant merit by establishing a research institute organized alongside the department and relocating it to Sopron (1919). During his years in Sopron, he had to experience several times that his enemies tried to hinder his work. He was retired in 1933, but when the Faculty of Agriculture of the József Nádor University of Technology and Economics in Budapest was established (1934), he was appointed professor of plant physiology and pathology. At the beginning of his career, he mainly dealt with viticulture issues (protection against phylloxera), and later with theoretical biological research, as well as plant physiology and microbiology. By researching the mathematical relationships of the course of life phenomena, he sought to determine the basic laws of biophysics. In the process, he established theoretically derived and experimentally verified mathematical formulas for describing the life phenomena of green plants and unicellular organisms (nutrition, growth, reproduction). He also published several textbooks in Selmecbánya (e.g. Fák anatómiája, ; 1908, Nóvénykórtan, etc.). ; ; His main works: ; ; Explanation of the regularity of the development of living beings (Mathematics and Natural Sciences) 1928, ; Explanations of the laws of phenomena in living beings I–IV. (Communication, ; Mathematical and Natural Sciences Reports from Hungary), 1929–1935), ; The role of aperiodically damped harmonic vibration in phenomena of life (Forestry Experiments), 1929.