László Z. Bitó (7 September 1934 – 14 November 2021) was a Hungarian

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and ...

and writer. As a researcher, he developed a medication for

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can lead to damage of the optic nerve. The optic nerve transmits visual information from the eye to the brain. Glaucoma may cause vision loss if left untreated. It has been called the "silent thief of ...

. As a writer, he wrote novels and essays.

Biography

László Bitó was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary. His family was forced to leave Budapest during the Communist era. He served in a mine in Komló and became a local leader of the revolution in 1956. After the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

was crushed by Russian forces, he fled to the United States where he won a scholarship and became a physiologist. He was granted asylum in the United States and came to

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

in the winter field period of 1956–57. Bitó graduated from

in 1960 as a pre-med biology major. He went on to obtain his PhD from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in medical cell biology in 1963. His research led to the development of

latanoprost Latanoprost, sold under the brand name Xalatan among others, is a medication used to treat increased pressure inside the eye (intraocular pressure). This includes ocular hypertension and open-angle glaucoma. Latanaprost is applied as eye d ...

(Xalatan), the drug that has saved the sight of millions of

sufferers. He published more than 150 scientific articles and received, among many other honors, the highest recognition in the field of eye research, the Proctor Medal, in 2000 and the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research in 2013.Laszlo Bito - Helen Keller Foundation
/ref> Upon retiring from

as Emeritus Professor of Ocular Physiology, he returned to Hungary and his first love of writing. Of his 14 nonscientific books—novels, essays, and three anthologies of some of his more than a hundred newspaper and magazine articles—some have appeared in translations in half a dozen countries. Bitó died in Budapest on 14 November 2021.

Scientific career

In the United States, László Bitó has built an academic career as an internationally known professor of physiology. Most of his academic career is connected to

(where he was Professor Emeritus of Ocular Physiology) and to the University of Puerto Rico where he studied the effect of ageing on the eyes of monkeys. The fruit of his research is latanoprost, the medicine for

. The development of latanoprost brought a fundamental change to the treatment of this blinding disease. He published more than 140 scientific papers and was awarded the Proctor Medal (2000) and Columbia University Award for Distinguished Achievement (2004).

Writing

László Bitó gradually moved back to

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

after the fall of

Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

and started a new career as a writer. His first novels are based on his early personal memories of Hungarian history. ''Istenjárás'' (Quick Step) and ''Az Ötödik Lovas'' (The Fifth Horseman) were written in English but published only in Hungarian translations. His third novel, based on

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

stories, "Abraham and Isaac" brought him literary success in 1998. The book was translated to several languages and was put on stage in Budapest theaters. "The Teachings of Isaac" and "Isaac of Nazareth" followed the philosophical ideas in "Abraham and Isaac" to a logical conclusion. His most recent books are the work of an American citizen and a Hungarian patriot. ''Nekünk kell megváltanunk magunkat'' (We Must Be Our Own Saviors) is a selection of his newspaper and magazine articles and interviews. ''Eutelia – Euthanasia'' (Blissful Life - Peaceful Death) is a philosophical writer’s and a humanist medical researcher’s argument about dignity in life and death. ''Az utolsó mérföld'' (The Last Mile) written together with Polcz, Alaine, a Hungarian writer and founder of the Hungarian hospice service, is a book about preparing to die.

László Z. Bitó Award for Humanitarian Service

In 2022,

introduced th
László Z. Bitó Award for Humanitarian Service
in the memory of its alumnus. The award recalled the traditions of Bard, when it welcomed students fleeing tyranny after the Second World War and after the Soviet invasion of Hungary.

Books

Academic publications

* ''The Ocular and Cerebrospinal Fluids'', with Davson H, Fenstermacher JD (Eds.),Academic Press, London, 1977. * ''The Ocular Effects of Prostaglandins and Other Eicosanoids'', with Stjernschantz J (Eds), Alan R. Liss, New York, 1989. * ''Ocular Effects of Prostaglandins and Other Eicosanoids'' (Ed), Special Supplement based on the 9th International PG Symposium (Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 12–13 May 1995) and the ARVO SIG Sessions on Latanoprost (Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 22–23 April 1996). Survey of Ophthalmology Vol. 41, Suppl 2, 1997.

Novels

* ''Istenjárás'', (Quick Step), Aura, 1994. (Translated from English by

Árpád Göncz Árpád Göncz (; 10 February 1922 – 6 October 2015) was a Hungarian writer, translator, lawyer and liberal politician who served as President of Hungary from 2 May 1990 to 4 August 2000. Göncz played a role in the Hungarian Revolution of 19 ...

and Pál Békés) * ''Az ötödik lovas'', (The Fifth Horseman), Aura, 1996. (Translated by Pál Békés) * ''Ábrahám és Izsák'',(Abraham and Isaac), Magyar Könyvklub, 1998. és Argumentum Kiadó, 2000. * ''Izsák tanítása'', (The Teachings of Isaac), Argumentum Kiadó, 2000. * ''A Názáreti Izsák'', (Isaac of Nazareth), Argumentum Kiadó, 2002.

Essays and collections

* ''Nekünk kell megváltanunk magunkat'', (We must be our own saviors), Argumentum Kiadó, 2004. . * ''Boldogabb élet - Jó halál'', (Blissful Life - Peaceful Death), Anthenaeum 2000 Kiadó, 2005. . * ''Gáspár, Menyhért, Boldizsár, Karácsonyi ős-ökuménia'', (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar), Ecumenical Chanuka and Christmas story with 30 fullpage color illustrations by Wanda Szyksznian, Jelenkor Kiadó, 2006. * ''Az utolsó mérföld'' (The Last Mile) (with Polcz, Alaine), Jelenkor Kiadó, 2007.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bito, Laszlo Z. 1934 births 2021 deaths Hungarian male novelists Bard College alumni 20th-century Hungarian novelists 20th-century Hungarian male writers 21st-century Hungarian novelists 21st-century Hungarian male writers Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty Writers from Budapest Hungarian expatriates in the United States