Semsey Andor

* Košice, December 22, 1833 – † Budapest, August 14, 1923 / mineralogist, patron ; ; He first studied law, then – as a prospective heir to a 40,000-acre estate – he continued his studies at the Hohenheim and Magyaróvár economic academies. Afterwards, he studied the more developed agricultural countries of Europe. In the late 1860s, his interest turned towards geology and mineralogy. In 1866, he rented out his estates, lived very modestly, almost self-sacrificingly, and supported the sciences with all his might, spending his income on the mineral and fossil exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum and the flourishing of the Geological Institute. He donated more than 2 million gold crowns to the purchase of scientific collections, scholarships, instrument equipment for scientific institutes, support for young researchers, study trips abroad, etc. In 1889, he established a 20,000 crown foundation at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to reward the writing of ten fundamental scientific works. József Sándor Krenner (1839–1920) named the semseyite discovered in 1881 and the lead-silver-antimony sulfur compound andorite discovered in Felsőbánya in 1889 after him. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a member in 1882. ; ; His main works: ; Tertiary fossils of Szilágysomlyó, 1877, ; The meteorite collection of the Hungarian National Museum, 1886, ; About my journey to Spain, 1888, ; The transformation of the Hungarian National Museum, 1891.