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Homage to Ferenc Schweitzer on his 70th birthday

Professor Schweitzer, who has been working in the 
Geographical Research Institute of the Hungarian 
Academy of Sciences (GRI HAS) for 45 years, 
started his academic career in the institution then 
led by Márton Pécsi. In the fi eld of physical ge-
ography he was mainly infl uenced by the heritage 
of Lajos Lóczy and Jenő Cholnoky. At the same 
time he was supported by and has maintained close 
contacts with the senior contemporary representa-
tives of geomorphology (Zoltán Borsy, Zoltán 
Pinczés), karst morphology (László Jakucs), and 
of related sciences such as paleontology (Miklós 
Kretzoi, Dénes Jánossy), archeology (László 
Vértes, Miklós Gábori), geology (György Wein), 
hydrogeology (Mihály Erdélyi), and hydrology 
(László Alföldi). 

Having joined the team led by professor 
Pécsi, F. Schweitzer became immediately involved in chronostratigraphical studies on 
Quaternary deposits, mainly on loess and loess-like sediments. Broad orientation, capabil-
ity and diligence in data collection and sampling coupled with sharp-sightedness in fi eld 
work, observations and mapping have been his strong points from the very beginning. 
Terrace morphological investigations with a special reference to the position of travertine 
horizons formed the topic of his Candidate of Sciences (CSc) thesis defended in 1983. These 
and subsequent fundamental studies have greatly contributed to the understanding of the 
geomorphic evolution in the Carpathian Basin during late Cenozoic and of the interpreta-
tion of the Plio-Pleistocene boundary; Schweitzer’s DSc thesis (1993) was mainly based 
on them. More recently he became interested in climate and environmental cycles in the 
region during the past 12–10 million years starting with the subarid phase of late Miocene, 
with stages of desertifi cation, and ice ages during the Pleistocene. Schweitzer’s interest 
is not restricted to Planet Earth; the Mars Mission inspired his recent essay “Ventifacts 
on Mars”.

Along with his involvement in classical problems of morphology, Schweitzer was 
active in applied research in physical geography. These activities started back to the 1970s 
with engineering geomorphological survey in general and mapping of surfaces aff ected 
by mass movements (collapses, slumps in loess and other landslides) in particular. They 
were epitomized in expertises and series of large-scale maps, and led eventually to the 
methodological issues of the morphological approach to environmental impact analysis of 
large projects such as the Paks Nuclear Power Plant (e.g. transit routes of migration of ra-
dionuclides emitt ed). Professor Schweitzer has acted as member of the expert committ ees 
on the safe disposal of radioactive wastes of PNPP and on the extension of the operation of 
the power station. His interest in fl uvial geomorphology led him to important conclusions 
about natural levee formation and fl oodplain sedimentation and to practical aspects of 
these processes in fl ood control on the Tisza river where he is also among the advisors.



308

Two former PhD students Gábor Varga and Gizella Bátori with the master

Congratulations by Szabolcs Ákos Fábián, accompanied with profs József Tóth and 
                                                                  Zoltán Dövényi



309

Ferenc Schweitzer became deputy director of the GRI HAS in 1994 and he has 
been serving in the capacity of director since 1997. He is a regular member of Szent István 
Academy of Sciences (2002), honorary member of the Hungarian Geographical Society 
(2001) and its vice president since 2009, honorary member of the Hungarian Karst- and Cave 
Research Society (2001), member of the Hungarian Geological Society. He held positions 
in commissions of the International Union of Quaternary Research (INQUA), Carpatho-
Balkanian Geomorphological Association, and in those of the HAS (geography, geomor-
phology).

As participant of congresses and conferences of INQUA, IGU (International 
Geographical Union), IAG/AIG (International Association of Geomorphologists), Professor 
Schweitzer has travelled extensively. Apart from appearances across Europe he made 
professional trips in Central Asia, Siberia, and Alaska, Israel and Iran, India, China and 
Japan, Mexico and Brasilia, South Africa, Australia and Oceania. These journeys allowed 
comparative analyses e.g. between warm and cold loesses developed under various envi-
ronmental conditions.

Ferenc Schweitzer had nearly 250 scientifi c contributions published in Hungarian 
and foreign languages.

His teaching activities began by the end of the 1980s as visiting lecturer in environ-
mental and engineering geomorphology at a teachers’ training college in the city of Pécs. 
Later his att ractive personality and informality in personal contacts won the sympathy 
and aff ection of students at the University of Pécs, where a school from his disciples was 
created almost spontaneously. His title of dr. habil dates back to 1995. He has been tutor at 
a doctoral school since 1997 and numerous PhD theses were prepared under his guidance. 
For his birthday a volume of studies were edited by his former students, now researchers 
and university lecturers on their own, and most of the authors also belong to this circle 
(of “Schweitzer Hussars”). “From travertines to desert varnish” says the title which best 
refl ects his life work. The about thirty laudations by a university rector, a former minister, 
academicians, colleagues and disciples cover forty pages, and somebody even wrote seven 
haikus and a limerick for him. On congratulations and celebrations you may read in another 
report of Chronicle in this issue of the Bulletin.

Éva Kis