IN MEMORY OF PROFESSOR GYULA HORVÁTH

On September 23, 2015, Prof. Gyula Horváth, member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Region: Economics and Sociology, tragically passed away at the age of 63.

For 15 years, Prof. Horváth was Director-General of the Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (CRS HAS); during recent years he was also the scientific advisor of the HAS Centre for Economic and Regional Studies that unified major economic institutes of the HAS. Prior to his untimely death, he had been nominated as Director General of this Centre and member of the HAS.

Gyula Horváth was an internationally acclaimed scientist in regional studies and regional policy, acknowledged leader within Hungarian regional science, and founder of a few doctoral schools. His research focused on the exploration of spatial processes in Europe, Hungary and the Carpathian Basin. Most recently, he had extensively studied the processes of regional innovation in Eastern and Central Europe.

Prof. Horváth was an extremely productive scientist who had published dozens of monographs, edited volumes, as well as several hundreds of scientific studies in Hungary and abroad. His knowledge was also frequently sought by local agencies and international expert bodies. As a professor at the University of Pécs, Gyula Horváth devoted much effort to training personnel for regional and municipal public authorities.

Gy. Horváth was a central figure in the scientific community. He was the founding president of the Hungarian Regional Science Association, president of the Committee on Regional Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and member of the Academia Europaea (London).

Prof. Horváth was not only a brilliant highest-level European scientist and strong science promoter in his country, for many years he was also our close friend. Gyula was proficient in the Russian language and had profound knowledge in the issues of regional development of the USSR and contemporary Russia. He had done so much to strengthen scientific contacts between Hungarian and Russian regionalists; he was an active and established member of the Editorial Board of our journal. Over the years, the IEIE SB RAS and the CRS HAS have been conducting a Hungarian–Russian project related to a comparative analysis of the processes of regional development in both our countries; and lately we have devised a new one named Decentralisation of Science as a Factor of Regional Development. In 2014, our institutes held International scientific conference “Regional Development in Central Europe and Russia. Territorial Disparities of Science and Innovation” in Moscow. Prof. Horváth was its heart and powerhouse.

Gy. Horváth visited Russia multiple times, and his outstanding presentations had always attracted great attention. We specifically remember the last one given at the Third International Forum “Tehnoprom-2015” in Novosibirsk, where Prof. Horváth was invited as one of the top experts.

We have learned with deep sorrow of the untimely death of Prof. Horváth with whom we discussed new plans to foster scientific cooperation. We will sorely miss our friend Gyula, who was a frequent guest in Siberia and our homes, his enthusiasm, sincerity, intelligence and extraordinary decency.

The IEIE SB RAS personnel and the Editorial Board of the Journal Region: Economics and Sociology express sincere condolences to Prof. Horváth’s family, to all his close and loved ones. We mourn with them and hope that we will be able to continue the work that Gyula served faithfully and sincerely: to strengthen the academic and creative relations between our institutes and scientific journals.

Deputy Director of the IEIE SB RAS,
Editor-in-Chief, Dr. V.Ye. Seliverstov