Geza Zemplén

* Trenčín, October 26, 1883 – † Budapest, July 24, 1956 / organic chemist, university professor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1927) ; ; Győző Zemplén (Nagykanizsa, October 17, 1879 – Monte Doloro, June 29, 1916) was the younger brother of physicist and university professor. His father was a postal clerk who was often transferred, so Géza Zemplén completed elementary school and high school in Rijeka, where he graduated in 1900. He began his university studies as a member of the Eötvös College. In 1904, he earned a doctorate in natural history and chemistry from the Budapest University of Science and Technology, and in 1905, he earned a secondary school teacher's certificate in natural history and chemistry. In the same year, he was appointed assistant professor at the Forestry Chemistry Department of the Selmecbánya College, and in 1906, he was appointed assistant professor. In 1907, he went to Berlin on a state scholarship, where he first worked on enzyme chemistry in Rudolf Abderhalden's class, and later became a direct colleague of Nobel Prize winner Emil Fischer. At that time, he mainly worked on the synthesis of carbohydrates and amino acids and the biosynthesis of acetobromo-cellobiose. The results of his joint work with Fischer include the synthesis of two optically active prolines, a new synthesis of aminooxyacids and piperidone derivatives. In 1910, he returned to Selmecbánya. In 1912, he became a private teacher at the University of Budapest. From 1913, he was a public full professor at the country's first organic chemistry department, which was started at the Technical University. During this time, he researched carbohydrates and enzymes. ; During World War I, he began to deal with industrial problems. At that time, he established a connection with the Chinoin factory. He played a significant role in the development of our organic chemical industry and our pharmaceutical industry. The main results of his work were the saponification of sugar acetates with sodium ethylate, the development of a new sugar decomposition method, the synthesis of oligosaccharides and glucosides with the mercury acetate method, as well as the discovery and synthesis of the structures of several important glucosides. As a teacher, he also made significant achievements and was a school-creating personality. His distinguished students included Dénes Beke, Rezső Bognár, the Nobel Prize winner György Oláh, Csaba Szántay and others. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1923, a full member in 1927, and an honorary member in 1946. He was awarded the Corvin Wreath in 1932 and the Kossuth Prize in 1948. In 1947, he traveled to the USA at the invitation of Georgetown University in Washington to work there as a research professor, but he was diagnosed with tongue cancer, which they tried to suppress with radiation therapy, but the intervention did not have the desired results, he returned home and for years, in the shadow of his increasingly worsening illness, he continued his research and wrote his textbook, from which a whole generation of chemists learned. He liked classical music, and enjoyed listening to operas. ; ; His main works: Enzymes and their practical application, 1915, Organic chemistry, 1952.