Gabor Uherkovich

* Dobsina, October 20, 1912 – † Pécs, March 7, 2002 / hydrobiologist, limnologist, algae researcher, university professor ; ; His family was forced to emigrate from the newly formed Czechoslovakia to Hungary after the change of empire in 1919, although his grandparents remained in Dobsina. He obtained a teaching certificate in biology and geography from the Ferenc József University of Szeged in 1937, and a doctorate in humanities from the same university in 1940. He taught at the teacher training college in Pápa from 1938 to 1940, and in Budapest from 1940 to 1948. In 1948, he was one of the founders of the Pécs Teacher Training College, where he became head of the botany department. In 1950, he initiated the establishment of the Pécs Botanical Garden. Due to his behavior in 1956, he was stripped of his teaching position and from 1957 he became a scientific associate at the Tisza Research Station of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged. Later, he was a visiting lecturer in hydrobiology at the University of Szeged until 1972. In 1970–1971, he was an associate of the Szolnok Museum. Between 1972–1978, he was a member of a research group at the Medical University of Pécs. In 1990, he became a doctor of biological sciences (DSc.), and in 1991, a university professor at the University of Pécs. An internationally renowned hydrobiologist who primarily studied the algae of river waters. ; In 1942–1943, he also studied the algal flora of Dobsina and its surroundings, then the Spiš region, but he also dealt with the aquatic organisms of the Tatra and the Danube. From 1963 he was a guest lecturer at various Scandinavian universities on several occasions. He researched freshwater algal fauna not only in the Carpathian Basin, but also in Scandinavia, South America (in the Amazon region) and Africa (Ivory Coast). By examining lesser-known hydrobiotopes (living coatings, sediment surfaces), he initiated new research directions in our country and significantly contributed to the knowledge of the fauna of our domestic waters. He is credited with developing the reptation sampling method. During his taxonomic research, he described several hundred new algal taxa. He has a memorial room in Szombathely, is the holder of numerous Hungarian and foreign awards (including the Holuby Memorial Medal of the Slovak Botanical Society), and is an honorary citizen of Pécs. One of the algal species bears his name (Scenedesmus uherkovichii). ; Author of 5 professional books and 170 scientific papers. ; ; His main works: ; Modern biological education, 1940, ; Botanical practices and experiments, 1951, ; General biology (with Tibor Hortobágyi), 1954, ; The wizard of gardens: Micsurin's life, work, main results, 1955, ; Marsili – a former great researcher of our country, 1959, ; Die Scenedesmus-Arten Ungarns, 1966, ; The floating tiny plants of the Tisza, 1971, ; Studies of algae vegetation in rivers and special still water habitats, 1987, ; Committed to the microworld. A memory of a research career, 2002