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, althoug ...

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 ...

and natural sciences 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 language, 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 ...

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, an ...

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

. 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 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 where a number of Anthropoid fossil remains were discovered. The genus '' Kretzoiarctos'' 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