Tibor Gánti

Last updated
Tibor Gánti
Born(1933-09-10)10 September 1933
Died15 April 2009(2009-04-15) (aged 75)
Nagymaros, Hungary
Nationality Hungarian
Alma mater Technical University of Budapest
Known for Chemoton model
Scientific career
Fields Biochemistry
Institutions University of Gödöllő
József Attila University
Eötvös Loránd University

Tibor Gánti (10 September 1933 15 April 2009) was a Hungarian theoretical biologist and biochemist, who is best known for his theory of the chemoton, a model for defining the minimal nature of life. [1] He taught industrial biochemistry at Faculty of Science of the Eötvös University, and theoretical biology at University of Gödöllő, József Attila University, and Eötvös University. [2] [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Plaque honoring Ganti at his birth site Ganti Tibor Vac Koztarsasag5.jpg
Plaque honoring Gánti at his birth site

Tibor Gánti worked as laboratory assistant at the Bacteriological Laboratory, Factory of Canned Food at Dunakeszi from 1951-1952. He then moved to Photochemical Research Institute of Vác in 1953-1954. From 1958 to 1965 he was the head of Yeast Laboratory, Yeast Factory, Budapest. In the meantime he completed a diploma in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Budapest in 1958, and a Dr. techn. (PhD) in 1962. Between 1965 and 1974 he was the head of biochemical department at the Reanal Factory of Laboratory Chemicals in Budapest. He was awarded a doctorate in biological science by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1980. [3]

Academic career

Gánti joined Eötvös Loránd University as a guest lecturer of industrial biochemistry in 1968 and taught there until 1972. In 1974, he became a guest lecturer in theoretical biology at the University of Gödöllő. Between 1975 and 1979 he taught theoretical biology at József Attila University, Szeged. He became guest professor of the theoretical biology at Eötvös University in 1978 up to 1999. [3]

Chemoton

Gánti formulated a theory about the fundamental nature of living organisms, presented as a model called the chemoton in 1971. According to the chemoton model, of necessity, living organisms should have a basic autocatalytic subsystem consisting of metabolism and a replication process, and a membrane enclosing these functions. [4]

His theory may be the most significant contribution to theoretical biology for understanding the chemical basis and origin of life, [1] as it provides a philosophy of evolutionary units. [5]

Political career

Gánti founded the Alliance for the Protection of Nature and Society (TTVSZ) that received 0.03 percent of the votes and won no seats in the 1990 parliamentary election. He ran as a candidate on the national list of the National Democratic Alliance in the 1994 parliamentary election, but did not obtain a mandate. [6]

Awards

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aristid Lindenmayer</span> Hungarian biologist

Aristid Lindenmayer was a Hungarian biologist. In 1968 he developed a type of formal language today called L-systems or Lindenmayer systems. Using those systems Lindenmayer modelled the behaviour of cells of plants. L-systems nowadays are also used to model whole plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Autopoiesis</span> Systems concept which entails automatic reproduction and maintenance

The term autopoiesis refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts. The term was introduced in the 1972 publication Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dénes Kőnig</span> Hungarian mathematician (1884-1944)

Dénes Kőnig was a Hungarian mathematician of Hungarian Jewish heritage who worked in and wrote the first textbook on the field of graph theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">László Lovász</span> Hungarian mathematician

László Lovász is a Hungarian mathematician and professor emeritus at Eötvös Loránd University, best known for his work in combinatorics, for which he was awarded the 2021 Abel Prize jointly with Avi Wigderson. He was the president of the International Mathematical Union from 2007 to 2010 and the president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 2014 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoltán Lajos Bay</span> Hungarian physicist and engineer

Zoltán Lajos Bay was a Hungarian physicist, professor, and engineer who developed technologies, including tungsten lamps and microwave devices. He was the leader of the second group to observe radar echoes from the Moon (Moonbounce). From 1930, he worked at the University of Szeged as a professor of theoretical physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">András Gerevich</span>

András Tibor Gerevich is a Hungarian poet, screenwriter, literary translator and professor of screenwriting at Budapest Metropolitan University and McDaniel College Budapest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chemoton</span> Abstract model for the fundamental unit of life

The term chemoton refers to an abstract model for the fundamental unit of life introduced by Hungarian theoretical biologist Tibor Gánti. Gánti conceived the basic idea in 1952 and formulated the concept in 1971 in his book The Principles of Life. He suggested that the chemoton was the original ancestor of all organisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">István Stumpf</span> Hungarian politician

István Stumpf is a Hungarian lawyer, political scientist, sociologist, university professor, political science PhD, former constitutional justice at the Constitutional Court of Hungary. From 1991 to 1994 he was the youth policy adviser to the president of Hungary, Árpád Göncz. He also served as minister of the Prime Minister's Office from 1998 - 2002 in the first cabinet of Viktor Orbán. In the beginning of 2021 February he was appointed for a term of 2 years as government commissioner responsible for model change of universities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lajos Bíró (zoologist)</span> Hungarian zoologist (1856–1931)

Lajos Bíró was a zoologist from Hungary. He explored Papua New Guinea between 1896 and 1902 and collected nearly 200000 specimens of which 2400 species were new to science. Many species, such as the beetle Catascopus biroi, were named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gyula Kornis</span>

Gyula Kornis was a Hungarian Piarist, philosopher, educator, professor and politician, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives for a short time in 1938.

Jeewanu are synthetic chemical particles that possess cell-like structure and seem to have some functional properties; that is, they are a model of primitive cells, or protocells. It was first synthesised by Krishna Bahadur, an Indian chemist and his team in 1963. Using photochemical reaction, they produced coacervates, microscopic cell-like spheres from a mixture of simple organic and inorganic compounds. Bahadur named these particles 'Jeewanu' because they exhibit some of the basic properties of a cell, such as the presence of semipermeable membrane, amino acids, phospholipids and carbohydrates. Further, like living cells, they had several catalytic activities. Jeewanu are cited as models of protocells for the origin of life, and as artificial cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibor Frank</span> Hungarian historian (1948–2022)

Tibor Frank was a Hungarian historian who was professor of history at the School of English and American Studies of the Faculty of Humanities of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). He was director of its School of English and American Studies. From 2013 he was corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), as of 2019 he was a full member.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enikő A. Sajti</span> Hungarian historian, professor emerita (born 1944)

Enikő A. Sajti is a Hungarian historian and professor emerita of Faculty of Arts, University of Szeged. She has been active in research of the relationship between Serbia & Croatia (Yugoslavia) and Hungary for decades. She is a notable and respected scientist both in Hungary and around the world.

Katalin M. Hangos is a Hungarian chemical engineer whose research concerns control theory and chemical process modeling. She is a research professor in the Systems and Control Laboratory of the Institute for Computer Science and Control of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and a professor of electrical engineering and information systems at the University of Pannonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attila Bartis</span> Hungarian writer and photographer (born 1968)

Attila Bartis is a Romanian-born Hungarian writer, photographer, dramatist and journalist. He received the Attila József Prize in 2005. His books have been translated into over 20 different languages. In 2001, he published his second novel, Tranquility, which was adapted into film in 2008. In 2017, he became a member of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ELTE Faculty of Law</span>

The Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University was founded in 1667 and it is located in Egyetem tér in Belváros-Lipótváros, Budapest, Hungary.

Miklós Szenczi was a Hungarian academic and literary scholar.

Tibor Lutter was a Hungarian academic and literary scholar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamás Adamik</span> Hungarian philologist (born 1937)

Tamás Adamik is a Hungarian classical philologist and linguist, literary historian, and translator. He joined Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest as a professor in 1973, where he worked in its Latin department until he took emeritus status in 2002. Adamik's areas of research focus have included Roman literature in Latin, Vulgar Latin, and Koine Greek; as well as early Christian literature.

References

  1. 1 2 Marshall, Michael (14 December 2020). "He may have found the key to the origins of life. So why have so few heard of him?". National Geographic. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  2. Szathmáry Eörs (9 July 2009). "GÁNTI TIBOR 1933–2009". Magyar Tudomány. A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 Chemoton. "CURRICULUM VITAE: Tibor Gánti". chemoton.com. Archived from the original on 12 September 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  4. Van Segbroeck S, Nowé A, Lenaerts T (2009). "Stochastic simulation of the chemoton". Artificial Life. 15 (2): 213–226. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.398.8949 . doi:10.1162/artl.2009.15.2.15203. PMID   19199383.
  5. Hoenigsberg HF (2007). "From geochemistry and biochemistry to prebiotic evolution...we necessarily enter into Gánti's fluid automata". Genet Mol Res. 6 (2): 358–373. PMID   17624859.
  6. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p. 899. ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7