Mór Korach or Maurizio Korach (8 February 1888 − 27 November 1975) was a Hungarian

chemical engineer A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...

, founder of technical chemistry in Hungary, and a full member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

. Residing in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

between 1912 and 1952, he was internationally recognized for his

ceramic engineering Ceramic engineering is the science and technology of creating objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials. This is done either by the action of heat, or at lower temperatures using precipitation reactions from high-purity chemical solutions ...

researches, significantly developing the Italian ceramic industry. He was born in

Miskolc Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities and towns in Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, ...

, Hungary, and studied at the Budapest University of Technology until 1911, then migrated to Italy in 1912 for political reasons. From 1916 until 1932 on he was a teacher in the art school of International Museum of Ceramics in

Faenza Faenza (, ; ; or ; ) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna. Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed earthenware pottery, known ...

, also directed the research laboratory of the museum. After 1925 he was the chairman of the technical chemistry department at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he joined the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

and took part in the

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...

. Called by the Hungarian government he moved back to Hungary in 1952. He assisted to the foundation of the Central Research Institute for Construction Materials of which he was the first director between 1953 and 1957. From 1960 until 1968 he was acting as founder director of the Research Institute of Technical Chemistry in Budapest. His main research field was the technical chemistry of

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

manufacture, chemical processing of ceramics. In 1928 he was the first to invent and construct an electric tunnel

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...

, later on he worked out a new ceramics firing method (what he named 'sandwich firing'). In addition to this he also made extensive researches on thermal insulators and technology of glazed tile manufacture. During the late period of his career he put down the theoretical fundamentals of technical chemistry and successfully adapted

mathematical model A mathematical model is an abstract and concrete, abstract description of a concrete system using mathematics, mathematical concepts and language of mathematics, language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed ''mathematical m ...

s (e.g.

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

) to describe chemical processes. He was a corresponding (1956), then a full member (1958) of the

. In Italy he was a popular writer under the name of ''Marcello Cora;'' he collaborated to prestigious review ''La Ronda'' and wrote novels such as ''Il figliuol prodigo'' (1933). He died 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.

Works

*''Elementi di tecnologia ceramica I–III.'' Faenza, Museo delle ceramiche, 1928, 51 + 48 + 83 p. *''On methodological problems of technology.'' in: Periodica Polytechnica 1958. 145–171. *''Általános kémiai technológia.'' eneral chemical technology.Budapest, Tankönyvkiadó, 1967, 327 p.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Korach Mor 20th-century Hungarian engineers Hungarian chemical engineers Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 1888 births 1975 deaths

Works

See also

References