Vitalis István

* Orosháza–Pusztaszentornya, March 14, 1871 – † Budapest, November 9, 1947 / geologist, university professor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1943) ; ; He completed his secondary school education in Szarvas. He studied geography and geology at the Budapest University of Science and Technology. In 1893, he was an assistant professor at the Technical University with Lajos Lóczy (Bratislava). From 1894, he was a high school teacher for a short time in Budapest and then in Selmecbánya. In 1903, he was an assistant professor at the Selmecbánya College, then from 1912, first in the mineralogy department, and after the college was relocated, from 1923, in the geology and settlement studies department in Sopron. Rector in 1919–1920. He played a role in raising the college to the rank of a technical university. He participated in the study of the area around Lake Balaton, in the geological surveys of the Transylvanian Basin, the Egbell area and the hydrocarbon exploration in Transcarpathia. His main achievements were in the field of coal exploration. At his suggestion, the Eocene lignite of Nagyegyháza, Zircijásd, Esztergom-Ligethegy was explored, the Liassic coal between Magyaregregy and Nagymányok, etc., and he explored the Pannonian woody lignite deposits of the Mátraalja. His many important studies were published in the Mining and Metallurgy Journals (Hungarian magnesite occurrences, 1914, New Eocene coal deposit in Németegyháza near Bicske, 1927, Halimba region bauxites and their utilization, 1932, Recski gold, silver and copper ore mine, 1933, Results and prospects of natural gas and oil exploration in Csonkamagyarország, 1937, Tarry lignite in the Mátra Mountains, 1946). He wrote the chapter on the natural conditions of Hont County in the Borovszky-like monograph. ; ; His main works: ; The basalts of the Balaton region, 1911, ; Exploration of Oligocene, Eocene and Paleocene bright lignite in the Transdanubian part of the Hungarian Central Mountains (academic chair holder), 1947.