Obituary of László Holly (1943–2015)

Abstract

László Holly passed away on 8 August 2015, at the age of 73. We lost a prominent scientist and an excellent expert on the fields of gene bank and biodiversity. He started his career in 1964 as a young scientist (plant pathologist) at the National Institute for Agrobotany in Tápiószele. He had various posts until 1990, and in this year he became the director of the Gene Bank (former Agrobotanical) Institute. From the late seventies, his main activity focused on genetic resources, gene bank and preservation of genetic diversity. He had very large international collaboration. Holly was involved in the European Plant Genetic Resources Information System (ECPGR) since the beginning, and he was very active in the establishment of the program in 1979. He was the ECPGR National Coordinator for Hungary until 2010. Besides his research activity, he gave lectures at several universities in Hungary. His publication activity was very rich; he had more than 180 different publications. László Holly was not only an excellent scientist, but his peaceful and prominent personality is unforgettable.