Kinga Székely (born 27 September 1945) is a Hungarian speleologist, geographer and cartographer. She is responsible for numerous maps and discoveries of Hungarian caves and the creation of databases to inventory and study them. She was instrumental in the declaration by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

that made the

Aggtelek Karst Aggtelek Karst is a karst area in northern Hungary. The area is especially well known for its abundance of caves, which were recorded together with those in neighboring Slovakia in 1995 to the list of World Heritage Site under the name of the Ca ...

and the

Slovak Karst The Slovak Karst () is one of the mountain ranges of the Slovenské Rudohorie mountains in the Carpathian Mountains, Carpathians in southern Slovakia. It consists of a complex of huge karst plains and plateaus. Since 1973 it has been a protected ...

World Heritage Sites World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

Biography

Székely was born in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

, Hungary, on 27 September 1945, and graduated from the Móricz Zsigmond Gymnasium in Budapest in 1964. She graduated from the Faculty of Geography and Cartography of

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...

in 1976. In 1973, she spent an academic year at

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

in Krakow, where she studied

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

geomorphology Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand wh ...

. From 1968 to 1978, she worked as the secretary of the Hungarian Karst and Speleological Society. From 1978, she was an employee of the Speleological Institute (Department) operating within the Nature Conservation Office. Beginning in 1986, she was its deputy head, and from 1990 until her retirement in 2002, she was its head. She has been a member of the Hungarian Karst and Speleological Society since 1960 and has been an honorary member of the Society since 2012.

Scientific career

Among other things, she participated in the excavation of the Lower Mountain caves in the 1960s. In 1968, she was one of the surveyors of the Szabó-Pallagi caves. In 1981, she developed and maintained the national cave registry system and managed its database for more than two decades. She also created the computer database of the Hungarian speleological bibliography, which today contains more than 10,000 entries. She helped to prepare the groundwork for laws dealing with cave protection published since 1982, and in the acceptance of the justification for the proposal necessary for declaring the

and the

as United Nations

. She advocated for the recognition of the right to build structures inside caves to protect visitors and the development of technical standards related to caves. She supervised the reconstruction of caves built for tourism on the same principles. From 1968 to 1993, she was the editor of ''Karst and Cave''.Szekely, Kinga. " John Paget cave descriptions of an English nobleman who has become Hungarian." In ''Proceedings of the ALCADI'92 International Conference on Speleo History'', pp. 103-108. 1992. She also edited the publication ''Speleotéka'', which was published for the first and only time in 1990. Her co-editor was Sándor Hadobás. She published almost 200 educational and professional papers dealing with the caves of Hungary, the protection of caves, the history of speleology, and the biographies of speleologists. In 1989, she organized an exhibition entitled ''Caves in the Arts'' at the Kiscell Museum in Budapest, featuring drawings and paintings by renowned artists from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. She was a member of several international speleological expeditions (

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

in 1988, Kyrgyzstan 1989, Far East 1990).

Personal life

Székely has remained active and in 2023 gave a public lecture about '' Sándor Petőfi's visit to the

Baradla Cave The Baradla Domica cave system is a large cave system in northern Hungary. As part of the Aggtelek Karst, it extends more than and includes the Domica cave. A significant part of the cave has varied colors and shapes providing an unparalleled s ...

.''

Selected honors

* Life-Saving Memorial Medal government award (1969) for work in the Cave Rescue Service * Otto Herman Medal (1978) * Commemorative plaque of the Association of Technical and Natural Science Associations (1992) for activities in the Hungarian Karst and Speleological Society * Commemorative Medal of the Slovak Museum of Speleology and Nature Conservation (1995) for historical research into caves * Pro Natura Award (2001) for cave protection * Dénes Balázs Memorial Plaque (2004) for her assistance in establishing the Hungarian Geographical Museum * István Schönvisner Memorial Medal (2008) * Hungarian Republic Golden Cross of Merit (2009) * Ferenc Papp Medal (2010) * Kadić Ottokár Medal (2018)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szekely, Kinga 1945 births Living people Hungarian geographers Speleologists Women geographers Women cartographers Hungarian cartographers 20th-century women scientists 21st-century Hungarian scientists Eötvös Loránd University alumni