Jenő Kvassay (Buda, 5 July 1850 – Budapest, 6 June 1919) was a civil engineer, specializing in

hydraulic engineering Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the move ...

. He was a significant figure in the development of the Hungarian water service.

Education

After studying

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

at the Technical University of Pest, he attended the Hungarian Royal Economic Academy in Magyaróvár. He completed his education at the

École des Ponts et Chaussées École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

in Paris.

Career

In 1876, Kvassay was the first to trace the saline pollution in the

Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain (however, the Great Hungarian Plain was not par ...

to the salt deposits (Lower

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

evaporites) in the Austrian mountains. Although, later research also confirmed the hypothesis of

József Szabó József Szabó (born 10 March 1969) is a retired Hungarian swimmer. He competed in three individual events at the 1988 Olympics and won a gold medal in the 200 m breaststroke; he placed fourth in the 400 m and 24th in the 200 m medley eve ...

that weathering of

peralkaline Peralkaline rocks include those igneous rocks which have a deficiency of aluminium such that sodium and potassium are in excess of that needed for feldspar. The presence of aegerine (sodium pyroxene) and riebeckite (sodium amphibole) are indicat ...

and alkaline rocks also contributed to this effect. He went to work at the Hungarian Agricultural Ministry, and in 1879 founded and became the director of their "Civil Engineering Institute" (''Kultúrmérnöki Szolgálat'') which was primarily concerned with flood-prevention, irrigation and the development of agricultural water resources. This later became the "National Water Bureau" (''Országos Vízügyi Főigazgatóság'' (OVF)). The current (2014-2020) national comprehensive water plan in Hungary is the "Jenő Kvassey Plan" (''A Kvassay Jenő Terv'').

Awards

The

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

awarded him the Fáy Award for his work ''Mezőgazdasági vízműtan'' (''Agricultural Water Works''), and in 1918 they awarded Kvassay the Wahrman Prize for his work.

Education

Career

Awards

Notes and references

Further reading