János Harmatta (1917-2004) Linguist. Born in Hódmezővásárhely. He received his diploma in Hungarian-Latin-Greek in 1940, became teacher at the department of Indo-European languages at ELTE University in 1952, then professor emeritus. His field spreads from Ob-Ugric linguistics through the classics, to oriental studies, and within this, to Iranian studies and indology. He played a significant part in the until-then new scientific discipline to Hungary, Iranian studies, being established at the university in Budapest. Was a member of the Language- and literature department of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1970, being deputy president from 1973 to 1986. President of the Classics Society and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Classics Committee. As a result of his work carried out at the International Academy Union an international research program related to Iran has been initiated.