1983-1987
In Memoria György Kovács 1925-1988
News of the death of György Kovács on 21 April brought sadness to the hearts of officers, of members of IAHS and to the world community of hydrologists; for György had played a leading role in the affairs of the Association over the last 20 years. It was in 1970 that he was appointed Secretary General after the enforced retirement of Professor L.J. Tison and was faced immediately with the difficult tasks of managing the affairs of the Association and preparing for the Moscow Assembly. He was an active member of the International Commission on Groundwaters and later as one of the Association's Vice-Presidents, he was responsible for the Committee on Reorganization and presented news statutes and bye-laws to the General Assembly at Hamburg. He was elected President of IAHS at that Assembly and during his term of office he was also elected to the Presidency of the UNESCO/IHP Intergovernmental Council. The illness which prevented him from attending the Vancouver Assembly made it difficult for him to continue his work at IIASA where he had moved after retiring from VITUKI in 1986.
Academician György Kovács was a former Director General of VITUKI and a well known researcher in the field of flow in porous media and a number of other areas such as flat lands and scale problems. His book and the large number of papers he had published reflect these wide-range interests. More recently he had been responsible for the IIASA project on managing large international river basins; he was one of the leaders of the IHP project on comparative hydrology and he was demonstrating his continuing interest in representative and experimental basins.
George will be greatly missed.