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Károly Ereky (; 20 October 1878 – 17 June 1952) was a Hungarian agricultural engineer. The term '
biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...
' was coined by him in 1919. He is regarded by some as the "father" of biotechnology.


Early life

Ereky was born on 18 October 1878 in
Esztergom Esztergom (; ; or ; , known by Names of European cities in different languages: E–H#E, alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the righ ...
, Hungary, as Károly Wittmann. His father was István Wittmann and his mother Mária Dukai Takách. (Among her relatives was Judit Dukai Takách (1795-1836) who was the first Hungarian female poet.) In 1893 he changed his name to Ereky. He had three brothers: Jenő, Ferenc and István. Ereky finished grammar school at Sümeg and Székesfehérvár. He attended the Technical University of Budapest and in 1900 received a degree in technical engineering. There may be a family connection between Ereky and compatriot Franz Wittmann, prominent electrical engineer and inventor of the Wittmann-oscilloscope.


Career

He then worked as machine designer for several paper and food industry companies in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Austria, until 1905. He moved to
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
and became an assistant professor in József Technical University. In 1919 he became the Hungarian Minister of Food. He wrote over one hundred publications which were written in Hungarian and published in German. Ereky was also proficient in speaking both German and English. In 1922 he wrote a book on the mechanisms of chlorophyll and how it can be used for animal feeding. In 1925 he wrote a book on leaf proteins as a possible food source which he also promoted as a commercial product.


Biotechnology

Ereky coined the word "biotechnology" in Hungary during 1919 in a book he published in Berlin called ''Biotechnologie der Fleisch-, Fett- und Milcherzeugung im landwirtschaftlichen Grossbetriebe'' (Biotechnology of Meat, Fat and Milk Production in an Agricultural Large-Scale Farm) where he described a technology based on converting raw materials into a more useful product.Fiechter (ed.), ''History of Modern Biotechnology I'', p. 153 He built a slaughterhouse for a thousand pigs and also a fattening farm with space for 50,000 pigs, raising over 100,000 pigs a year. The enterprise was enormous, becoming one of the largest and most profitable meat and fat operations in the world. Ereky further developed a theme that would be reiterated through the 20th century: biotechnology could provide solutions to societal crises, such as food and energy shortages. For Ereky, the term "biotechnology" indicated the process by which raw materials could be biologically upgraded into socially useful products. The book sold several thousand copies within few weeks in Germany. In 1921 the book was translated into Dutch.


After WWII and death

On 19 September 1946, Ereky was sent to prison in
Vác Vác (; ; ; ) is a thousand-year old city in Pest county in Hungary with approximately 35,000 inhabitants. The archaic spelling of the name is ''Vácz''. Location Vác is located north of Budapest on the eastern bank of the Danube river, below t ...
for 12 years by People's Tribunal for his counter-revolutionary role in Hungary. He died in prison on 17 June 1952 at the age of 74.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ereky, Karoly 1878 births 1952 deaths People from Esztergom Hungarian scientists Government ministers of Hungary Biotechnologists Hungarian people who died in prison custody Scientists from Austria-Hungary