26th June1935 – 26th December 2017
1958 Chemist, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences (ELTE)
1958-Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS)
1968 CSc
1969 senior research fellow
1975 DSc
1976-2005 Head of Research Unit of X-ray Diffraction
1977 adj. University Professor at ELTE
1995 corresponding member of HAS
2001 ordinary member of HAS
2003 member of the Academia Scientiarum Europaea (Brussels)
Milestones in the scientific career of Prof Alajos Kálmán:
In the early years structure determination of inorganic compounds, description of the tetrahedral oxyanions, recognizing regularities in the periodic table. Soon after exploration of the chemical structure and polymorphism of some hundreds of heterocyclic compounds. Description of morphotropism. Comprehensive characterization of the isostructurality of organic crystals, elaborating of the isostructurality index. During studying isostructural systems he discovered the importance of the non-crystallographic rotations and translations. He published 363 research papers, 8 proceedings, 55 conference abstracts, 32 papers related to crystallographic research, number of books, and book chapters. Number of citation he received till now is over 4000. He was a visiting scientist and lecturer in several countries, such as Italy (1966), Great Britain with Prof. Durward Cruickshank (1968–1969), USA (1974, 1989) and Japan (1997). He was working fatigueless. He was awarded by the Prize of HAS in 1975, Széchenyi Prize in 1994, Hanus Medal in 2002, Podmaniczky Prize in 2005, Rudolf Fabinyi Prize in 2007, Károly Than Memorial Medal in 2011 and István Náray-Szabó Prize in 2015.
Professor Kálmán was the member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Crystallography between 1984 and 1990. He was the Vice President of IUCr between 1990 and 1993. He represented the IUCr in the European Physical Society between 1987 and 1993. Professor Kálmán was elected to be the Vice President of the Hungarian Chemical Society in 1990, he was the President of the Society between 1996 and 2007.
Beside the outstanding scientific career Professor Kálmán was a firm literate and active in public life. He became an honorary freeman of his district Rákosmente in 1997. He was the President of the Cultural Society of Ferenc Vigyázó between 1989 and 2000. His hobby was the studying of cathedrals, giving exciting lectures regularly to wide auditoriums, reporting his experiences of travels.
Professor Kálmán’s enthusiasm caught all people who knew him. His passionate way of lecturing swung numbers of students over the decades to crystallography. It was a privilege to be his student and collague.
Prof Kálmán passed away quite suddenly after spending the festive season with his family. He left his family, two sons and four grandchildren.