Kálmán Kerpely ( Oravicabánya,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

oday Oraviţa, Romania 11 October 1864 –

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary, 24 June 1940) agronomist, agrochemist, a corresponding member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...

Education

He attended the Academy of Mining and Forestry in Selmecbánya (Hungary, today in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

), then from 1881 until 1884 the Agricultural High College in

Keszthely Keszthely (; also known by other alternative names) is a Hungarian city of 20,895 inhabitants located on the western shore of Lake Balaton. It is the second largest city by the lake and one of the more important cultural, educational and economi ...

(

). In 1889-1890 he gained the scholarship of the Ministry of Agriculture to study agricultural matters at the

Martin Luther University Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

(

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Career

After his return he was appointed to the Agricultural High College in Keszthely as professor of the agricultural botany, plant anatomy and phytopathology. In 1892 he occupied the position offered to him at the

Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...

Agricultural High College, between 1899 and 1904, then from 1908 until 1913 he was the director of the institute. In 1897 he organised a tobacco breeding station near Debrecen (Pallagpuszta). In 1920 he left Debrecen and moved to the Péter Pázmany University where he was the first professor of plant breeding until his retirement in 1935. His research mainly focused on the soil conditioning and on

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

s, but he also improved the

agrotechnology Agricultural technology or agrotechnology (abbreviated agtech, agritech, AgriTech, or agrotech) is the use of technology in agriculture, horticulture, and aquaculture with the aim of improving yield, efficiency, and profitability. Agricultural tec ...

of tobacco and rye cultivation. He thoroughly studied the physico-chemical properties of soil, relationship between the

water content Water content or moisture content is the quantity of water contained in a material, such as soil (called soil moisture), rock, ceramics, crops, or wood. Water content is used in a wide range of scientific and technical areas, and is expressed as ...

and circuit and the crop quality. For nearly half a century he was a prominent figure of the Hungarian

agricultural education Agricultural education is the teaching of agriculture, natural resources, and land management. At higher levels, agricultural education is primarily undertaken to prepare students for employment in the Primary sector of the economy, agricultural ...

Honors

In 1922 he was elected corresponding member of the

References

*''A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia tagjai 1825–2002 II.'' embers of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 1825–2002.Budapest, 2003, pp. 662. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerpely Kalman Hungarian agronomists Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences People from Oravița 1940 deaths 1864 births