István Dódony is known to everyone who regularly attends our annual conference.
He is friendly, direct, and helpful and his distinctive voice is easy to recognize. He often comments on the presentations. From these comments, even those who are not familiar with the subject in question can easily recognize that he is thoroughly familiar with the subject, both theoretically and practically, he has a strong position, and expresses his opinion clearly and understandably. And it is worth listening to what he says, even in the rare case when he is not right when discussing a particular issue, because what he says we can learn from it then, too. Not many people risk taking a position that contradicts the majority view but he can even afford to do that. Why? The succinct answer of Miklós Soós, who was a student of his, can be satisfying to this too. Before my first meet István Dódony in person I asked Miklós about him and he told me only this: ‘He is a genius.’
At the MTA, when the József Eötvös wreath was presented to him, the words were, of course, quite different from those I have just described.
According to the description, he was awarded for “…the establishment of modern mineralogical research based on crystallography and materials science in Hungary, for his outstanding achievements in the research of the “real”, i.e. non-ideal and non-periodic crystal structure of minerals, and for the creation of a national school of electron microscopy, the results of which are internationally recognized in both the earth sciences and materials science”.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Pista Dódony for his great achievements and wish him good health and long working life, and we look forward to seeing him again – with his family! – to our conference.
