Miklós Kretzoi (9 February 1907 – 15 March 2005) was a Hungarian

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and paleoanthropologist and

Széchenyi Prize The Széchenyi Prize ( hu, Széchenyi-díj), named after István Széchenyi, is a prize given in Hungary by the state, replacing the former State Prize in 1990 in recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to academic life in Hu ...

winner. Exhibition in the

Hungarian National Museum The Hungarian National Museum ( hu, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum) was founded in 1802 and is the national museum for the history, art, and archaeology of Hungary, including areas not within Hungary's modern borders, such as Transylvania; it is not to ...

, 9 February - 24 May 2004 Kretzoi studied

Arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

and

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

s at the then Pázmány Péter University, Budapest from 1925 to 1929. While still a student, he worked as a

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

at the Geological Institute of Hungary. In 1930 he graduated from the

University of Pécs The University of Pécs (UP; Hungarian: ''Pécsi Tudományegyetem''; PTE) is an institution of higher education in Hungary. The modern university was established in 1912 but has its roots in the medieval university founded in Pécs in 1367 by ...

with a PhD in Palaeontology, Geology and

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

. In 1933 he commenced work with the "Hungarian-American Oil Inc" as a geologist and

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

. He remained at Hungarian-American Oil until the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Kretzoi moved to the

National Museum of Hungary The Hungarian National Museum ( hu, Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum) was founded in 1802 and is the national museum for the history, art, and archaeology of Hungary, including areas not within Hungary's modern borders, such as Transylvania; it is not to ...

where he was

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the

Mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

and Paleontology departments until he began work at the Geological Institute of Hungary in 1950. Kretzoi was the director of the Geological Institute of Hungary from 1956 to 1958. From the mid-1960s he led the " digs" at

Rudabánya Rudabánya is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Hungary. The town territory was the location of the discovery of a hominid from 12 million years ago, '' Dryopithecus brancoi'' (1969). International relations Rudabánya is twinned with: ...

where a number of

Anthropoid Anthropoid means 'ape/human feature' and may refer to: * Simian, monkeys and apes (anthropoids, or suborder Anthropoidea, in earlier classifications) *Anthropoid apes - apes that are closely related to humans (e.g., former family Pongidae and some ...

fossil remains were discovered. The genus ''

Kretzoiarctos ''Kretzoiarctos'' is an extinct bear genus from the European Miocene. It consists of ''Kretzoiarctos beatrix'', an ancestor of the extant giant panda. Description ''Kretzoiarctos beatrix'' was originally described in 2011 as ''Agriarctos beatr ...

'' was named after Miklós Kretzoi. Its type species ''Kretzoiarctos beatrix'' was previously classified as a member of ''Agriarctos'', and ''Agriarctos'' was described by Kretzoi.

References

2005 deaths 1907 births Hungarian geologists Hungarian paleontologists Paleoanthropologists 20th-century geologists Scientists from Budapest Pázmány Péter Catholic University alumni University of Pécs alumni Evolutionary biologists {{Hungary-scientist-stub