János Gausz

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János Gausz (7 October 1943 – 2021) was a Hungarian geneticist and longtime educator at the University of Szeged. He was born in Novi Sad and moved to Szeged after World War II. He studied biology and chemistry at József Attila University (now the University of Szeged), graduating in 1967. He earned the Doctor of Biological Sciences degree in 1995 and had previously obtained the Candidate of Biological Sciences in 1982.

Gausz began his career at József Attila University, later joining the Institute of Genetics at Szeged’s Biological Research Centre in 1970 as a founding member. He led the Developmental Genetics Group and, later, the Insect Genetics Group, starting Drosophila research in Hungary. He was a senior research fellow and scientific advisor and taught genetics at the University of Szeged. He received the Széchenyi Professorial Scholarship for his teaching and, after retiring from the Biological Research Centre, continued to teach at the University of Szeged from 2010 to 2020. In 2015 he was honored with the title University Lecturer.

In research, Gausz began with zoology and ecology of Orthoptera, then focused on Drosophila genetics. His work covered heat-shock genes, positional effect variation, homeotic genes, and protein phosphatase genes, with publications in Cell, Nature, Genetics, EMBO Journal, and Development.

He spent time abroad as a post‑doctoral fellow with Walter Gehring at Basel, a senior researcher at the University of Geneva with Pierre Spierer, and a visiting professor at Princeton University with Paul Schedl.

Gausz held several leadership and committee roles, including the University of Szeged’s habilitation committee, the Batthyány Society of Professors, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Genetics Committee, and the Hungarian Geneticists’ Association. He also served as president of the Biological Society of Szeged.

Selected works include History of Genetics (2012). His awards include the Academic Prize (1993), Széchenyi Professorial Scholarship (1998), Brunó Ferenc Straub Prize (1999), and János Szentágothai Prize (2002). János Gausz passed away in Szeged in 2021.