Tibor Erdey-Grús

Born Oct. 27, 1902, in Budapest; died there Aug. 16, 1976. Hungarian physical chemist and political figure. Academician of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1948; corresponding member, 1943).

Erdey-Grús graduated from the faculty of philosophy at the University of Budapest in 1924 and from the faculty of pharmacology in 1938. He served as minister of higher education of the Hungarian People’s Republic from 1952 to 1956, as chairman of the Council of Science and Higher Education under the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian People’s Republic from 1961 to 1964, and as president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1970 to 1976. Erdey-Grus’ principal works dealt with electrochemistry. He studied the electrocrystallization mechanism and the processes that occur in electrolyte solutions and on electrode surfaces.

Erdey-Grús received the Kossuth State Prize in 1950 and 1956; he became a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1966.