The Most Famous

PHYSICIANS from Hungary

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This page contains a list of the greatest Hungarian Physicians. The pantheon dataset contains 726 Physicians, 10 of which were born in Hungary. This makes Hungary the birth place of the 17th most number of Physicians behind Denmark, and Canada.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Hungarian Physicians of all time. This list of famous Hungarian Physicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Hungarian Physicians.

Photo of Ignaz Semmelweis

1. Ignaz Semmelweis (1818 - 1865)

With an HPI of 73.98, Ignaz Semmelweis is the most famous Hungarian Physician.  His biography has been translated into 69 different languages on wikipedia.

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (German: [ˈɪɡnaːts ˈzɛml̩vaɪs]; Hungarian: Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp [ˈsɛmmɛlvɛjs ˈiɡnaːts ˈfyløp]; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician and scientist of German descent, who was an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures, and was described as the "saviour of mothers". Postpartum infection, also known as puerperal fever or childbed fever, consists of any bacterial infection of the reproductive tract following birth, and in the 19th century was common and often fatal. Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of infection could be drastically reduced by requiring healthcare workers in obstetrical clinics to disinfect their hands. In 1847, he proposed hand washing with chlorinated lime solutions at Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwives' wards. The maternal mortality rate dropped from 18% to less than 2%, and he published a book of his findings, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever, in 1861. Despite his research, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. He could offer no theoretical explanation for his findings of reduced mortality due to hand-washing, and some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and mocked him for it. In 1865, the increasingly outspoken Semmelweis allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum by his colleagues. In the asylum, he was beaten by the guards. He died 14 days later from a gangrenous wound on his right hand that may have been caused by the beating.His findings earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory, giving Semmelweis' observations a theoretical explanation, and Joseph Lister, acting on Pasteur's research, practised and operated using hygienic methods, with great success.

Photo of Albert Szent-Györgyi

2. Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893 - 1986)

With an HPI of 65.36, Albert Szent-Györgyi is the 2nd most famous Hungarian Physician.  His biography has been translated into 68 different languages.

Albert Imre Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt (Hungarian: nagyrápolti Szent-Györgyi Albert Imre; September 16, 1893 – October 22, 1986) was a Hungarian biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with first isolating vitamin C and discovering many of the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle and the molecular basis of muscle contraction. He was also active in the Hungarian Resistance during World War II, and entered Hungarian politics after the war.

Photo of Kálmán Kalocsay

3. Kálmán Kalocsay (1891 - 1976)

With an HPI of 55.74, Kálmán Kalocsay is the 3rd most famous Hungarian Physician.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Kálmán Kalocsay (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈkaːlmaːn ˈkɒlot͡ʃɒi]; 6 October 1891 in Abaújszántó – 27 February 1976) was a Hungarian Esperantist poet, translator, and editor who significantly influenced Esperanto culture, both in its literature and in the language itself, through his original poetry and his translations of literary works from his native Hungarian and other languages of Europe. His name is sometimes Esperantized as Kolomano Kaloĉajo, and some of his work was published under various pseudonyms, including C.E.R. Bumy, Kopar, Alex Kay, K. Stelov, Malice Pik and Peter Peneter. Kalocsay studied medicine and later became a surgeon and the chief infectious disease specialist at a major Budapest hospital. He learned both Esperanto and its breakaway dialect Ido in his adolescence, but became more inclined towards Esperanto after he had seen its greater literary potential. In 1921 his first original collection of poems, Mondo kaj Koro (“World and heart”) was published. A further decade passed before the appearance of his collection Streĉita Kordo (“A taut string”), which many Esperantists consider one of the finest collections of original Esperanto poetry, and Rimportretoj (“Portraits in rhyme”), witty poems in rondel style about various people then prominent in the Esperanto movement. In 1932, under the pseudonym Peter Peneter, he published Sekretaj Sonetoj (“Secret sonnets”), a book of erotic verse. In addition to being a prolific author of Esperanto works, Kalocsay guided the Esperanto literary world through a magazine and publishing house called Literaturo Mondo (“Literary world”). A group of writers who coalesced around this magazine during the 1920s and 1930s were known as the "Budapest school" (Budapeŝto skolo). Works of Kalocsay about literary and linguistic theory include the expansive Plena Gramatiko de Esperanto (“Complete grammar of Esperanto”) and Parnasa Gvidlibro (“Handbook of Parnassus”), a work on Esperanto poetics co-authored with Gaston Waringhien, and an academic style guide for Esperanto, Lingvo – Stilo – Formo (“Language, style and form”). Kalocsay also co-compiled the two-volume Enciklopedio de Esperanto (“Encyclopædia of Esperanto”). Much was written about Kalocsay by his literary executor Ada Csiszár, after whose death the estate passed to the Esperanto Museum of the Austrian National Library.

Photo of Gabor Maté

4. Gabor Maté (b. 1944)

With an HPI of 54.79, Gabor Maté is the 4th most famous Hungarian Physician.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Gabor Maté (born January 6, 1944) is a Canadian physician. He has a background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development, trauma and potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health including autoimmune disease, cancer, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addictions and a wide range of other conditions. Maté's approach to addiction focuses on the trauma his patients have suffered and looks to address this in their recovery. In his book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, Maté discusses the types of trauma suffered by persons with substance use disorders and how this affects their decision making in later life. He has authored five books exploring topics including ADHD, stress, developmental psychology, and addiction. He is a regular columnist for the Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail.

Photo of Thomas Szasz

5. Thomas Szasz (1920 - 2012)

With an HPI of 54.53, Thomas Szasz is the 5th most famous Hungarian Physician.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Thomas Stephen Szasz ( SAHSS; Hungarian: Szász Tamás István [saːs]; 15 April 1920 – 8 September 2012) was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. A distinguished lifetime fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a life member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, he was best known as a social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, as what he saw as the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as scientism. His books The Myth of Mental Illness (1961) and The Manufacture of Madness (1970) set out some of the arguments most associated with him.Szasz argued throughout his career that mental illness is a metaphor for human problems in living, and that mental illnesses are not "illnesses" in the sense that physical illnesses are, and that except for a few identifiable brain diseases, there are "neither biological or chemical tests nor biopsy or necropsy findings for verifying DSM diagnoses."Szasz maintained throughout his career that he was not anti-psychiatry but rather that he opposed coercive psychiatry. He was a staunch opponent of civil commitment and involuntary psychiatric treatment, but he believed in and practiced psychiatry and psychotherapy between consenting adults.

Photo of Moritz Kaposi

6. Moritz Kaposi (1837 - 1902)

With an HPI of 54.04, Moritz Kaposi is the 6th most famous Hungarian Physician.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Moritz Kaposi (Hungarian: Kaposi Mór, pronounced [ˈkɒpoʃi ˈmoːr]; 23 October 1837 – 6 March 1902) was a physician and dermatologist from the Austro-Hungarian Empire who discovered the skin tumor that received his name (Kaposi's sarcoma).

Photo of Eva Klein

7. Eva Klein (b. 1925)

With an HPI of 51.54, Eva Klein is the 7th most famous Hungarian Physician.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Eva Klein (née Eva Fischer; born January 22, 1925) is a Hungarian-Swedish scientist. Klein has worked at the Karolinska Institute since leaving Hungary in 1947. She is regarded as a founder of cancer immunology. Her life and career choices as a young Jewish woman were constrained by discrimination, and she survived the late stages of German occupation in hiding. A medical doctor with a PhD in biology, she has worked in cancer immunology and virology. In the 1960s, she led the discovery of natural killer cells and developing Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines.In 1975, the U.S. Cancer Research Institute established the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. The inaugural award was shared by 16 scientists considered to be "founders of cancer immunology", including Eva and George Klein. Their award noted their "discoveries of tumor-specific antigens in the mouse, to the most comprehensive immunological analysis of a human cancer, Burkitt's lymphoma".She has pursued her own lines of work as well as working closely with her husband, George Klein. They are both regarded as founders of cancer immunology. They have three children.

Photo of Emil Zuckerkandl

8. Emil Zuckerkandl (1849 - 1910)

With an HPI of 49.50, Emil Zuckerkandl is the 8th most famous Hungarian Physician.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Emil Zuckerkandl (1 September 1849 in Győr, Hungary – 28 May 1910 in Vienna, Austria) was a Hungarian anatomist.

Photo of Edith Farkas

9. Edith Farkas (1921 - 1993)

With an HPI of 47.14, Edith Farkas is the 9th most famous Hungarian Physician.  Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Edith Elizabeth Farkas (13 October 1921 – 3 February 1993) was an Antarctic researcher, best known for being the first Hungarian woman and also the first New Zealand MetService female staff member to set foot in Antarctica. In addition she conducted world-leading ozone monitoring research for over 30 years.

Photo of Gabriele Possanner

10. Gabriele Possanner (1860 - 1940)

With an HPI of 46.85, Gabriele Possanner is the 10th most famous Hungarian Physician.  Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Gabriele Possanner (27 January 1860 – 14 March 1940) was the first woman medical doctor to practice medicine in Austria.

People

Pantheon has 12 people classified as Hungarian physicians born between 1818 and 1944. Of these 12, 3 (25.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Hungarian physicians include Gabor Maté, Eva Klein, and Jenő Kamuti. The most famous deceased Hungarian physicians include Ignaz Semmelweis, Albert Szent-Györgyi, and Kálmán Kalocsay. As of April 2024, 2 new Hungarian physicians have been added to Pantheon including Gabor Maté, and Jenő Kamuti.

Living Hungarian Physicians

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Deceased Hungarian Physicians

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Newly Added Hungarian Physicians (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Physicians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 9 most globally memorable Physicians since 1700.