The history of the Department of Climatology and Landscape Ecology
The Institute of Geography of the University was founded in 1921, after having been moved from Kolozsvár. First lectures of the atmosphere, as a chapter of the subject of Geography, were held by professors Gábor Schilling, Károly Kogutowicz and Alfréd Hille. The Department of Climatology separated from the Institute of Geography in 1952, and became independent. Its founder and first leader was professor Richard Wagner who have directed the department for more than two decades. In this era the main research field of the department was microclimate. The first volune of Acta Climatologica, the yearly periodical of the department, which has been internationally known, was issued in this period, in 1959.
During the leadership of professor György Péczely the main research field was Synoptical Climatology. At the same time there were then also courses on this subject at the department. During his activity in Szeged he published a basic study book on General Meteorology and Physical Climatology and another one on Regional Climatology.
Later, when professor György Koppány became the head, new research fields appeared, such as Historical Climatology, study of stratospheric ozone and theoretical experiments for predicting droughts. These subjects were parts of education as special courses, as well.
In 1997 our chair turned into Department of Climatology and Landscape Ecology by the leadership of Ilona Bárány-Kevei. From this time on the tradicional climatological profile extended with a new research field, with researches of Landscape Ecology.
Urban climatic studies in Szeged were initiated by János Unger, who has been the head of the departement since January 2007.
The current diverse research profile of the departement consists of the following areas: landscape ecology, air pollution studies, urban climate and human bioclimatology.
