We are deeply saddened by the news of Prof. István T. Horváth passing on 7 March 2022 in Hungary due to an acute stroke.
Prof. Horváth joined City University of Hong Kong (CityU) in 2009, and served as Head of Department of Biology and Chemistry (later renamed as Department of Chemistry) between May 2009 and July 2015. After stepping down as the Department Head, he continued to serve as Chair Professor of Chemistry at CityU until his retirement in summer of 2020. With extensive experience in industry and passion in caring the wellbeing of our students, Prof. Horváth had developed several new modern courses including BCH3055 Green Chemistry, BCH4033 Industrial Chemistry and BCH6121 Academic and Industrial Research, Development and Innovation with a view to enriching the learning of our students, and better preparing them for their career development in the chemical sector.
As a pioneer in green chemistry, catalysis and sustainability, Prof. Horváth was an internationally renowned scientist with an h-index of 68, and a total citation of over 40,850 times (Google Scholar Citations). For instance, his landmark papers published in Science (266 (5182):72-75 in 1994; 337 (6095):695-699 in 2012) received over 1600 citations, respectively. Prof. Horváth also served on editorial boards of prestigious scholarly journals such as Green Chemistry, and Chemical Reviews. He was also very active in organizing international conferences such as the International Symposium on Flourous Technologies 2011, and the International Symposium on Translating Omics Science to Clinical Applications 2013. In recognition of his great contributions to education, research and services, Prof. Horváth had received numerous awards and honours including the conferment as an Honorary Member of the Accademia Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti Modena in 2010, the Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry in 2013, Fellow of American Chemical Society in 2014, Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2016, Paul Harris Fellow in 2017 and External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Science in 2019. In 2020, Prof. Horváth retired from CityU and relocated to his home country, Hungary where he continued to serve as an Adjunct Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, and a Honorary Professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. To celebrate his life-time achievements as a chemist and an educator, the Editor of ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Professor John Gladysz wrote the Festschrift in Honor of István T. Horváth in 2018 which provided a comprehensive summary of the history and achievements of Prof. Horváth (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b03138). “Horváth has always had the generous nature and open type of personality that makes it very easy for him to serve as a mentor, form personal relationships, and take special interest in the welfare of those around him.” remarked by Professor Gladysz.
Prof. Horváth had been an esteemed faculty member of CityU for 11 years. He was a friendly, positive and warmhearted teacher and colleague. He will be remembered by his students and colleagues for his friendship, contributions and dedication to the Department of Chemistry and CityU.
Our deepest condolences to his family.