The Memory of an Incomparably Wealthy Life

The Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Informatics, Prof. Dr. Zoltán Siménfalvi, recalled his life, his role in the history of the university and his scientific work at the statue unveiling, which was attended by his colleagues, former colleagues and admirers, as well as the professor’s family.

Tibor Czibere (1930-2023), Kossuth and Széchenyi Prize winner, ruby-leaved mechanical engineer, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, former rector of the University of Miskolc, graduated in 1953 in the first class of mechanical engineers in Miskolc. As one of the emblematic figures of the first half century of the university, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, and later he was invited to head the Department of Flow and Heat Machines. He retired as a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, where he was appointed professor emeritus. During his career, he was Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and was also Minister of Culture.

The statue of Czibere in the foyer of the University of Miskolc – the work of Munkácsy Prize-winning sculptor Richárd Juha – is a lasting memorial to a lifetime’s work,” said Prof. Dr. Zoltán Siménfalvi.

Those who are remembered will always be with us.

– said Prof. Dr. Zita Horváth, Rector of the University of Miskolc. She recalled that her predecessor had witnessed decisive periods in history, but after his involvement in public life, he returned to the Alma Mater. He said that one of the decisive achievements of the former rector of the university was to open the door to other disciplines while maintaining the quality of the technical faculties, thus contributing to the development of the university, which today has eight faculties.

In addition to the family, the creation of the statue honouring the work of Prof. Dr. Tibor Czibere was made possible by the University of Miskolc, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Foundations for the Development of Engineering Education and Training, GGMD Zrt., the Földes Ferenc Gymnasium Alumni Association, Emerson Automation FCP Kft., the municipalities of Tapolca and Miskolc. Support was also provided by former students and staff of the University of Miskolc.

Tibor Czibere was born on 16 October 1930 in Tapolca. His father was an auxiliary officer of the Hungarian Railways; his mother was a housewife. He completed four grades of elementary school in his hometown, then from 1941 he continued his studies at the Premontrian High School in Keszthely, where he graduated with honours in 1949. He went through many hardships during the war, but perhaps his will to survive gave him the experience, strength, perseverance and discipline that helped him later in life.

He began his higher education at the new higher education institution founded in 1949, the Miskolc University of Heavy Industry, as one of the first students of mechanical engineering at the newly established Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. At that time, a class of mechanical engineers, now legendary, entered the university, as later on, many of the most prominent figures in Hungarian academia emerged from its ranks. Tibor Czibere’s talent was also evident early on in his outstanding academic achievements. This was particularly true of his performance in mathematics, which attracted the attention of the lecturers of the Mathematics Department, who assigned him to demonstration tasks. It was here that he first came into contact with the then Head of the Department, Professor Samu Borbély, with whom he maintained an exceptional human and professional relationship until his death in 1984.

He completed his university studies in 1953 with a diploma with distinction, and subsequently, in addition to his teaching work as an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, he also pursued scientific activities. In an example of the cross-fertilisation between industry and higher education, the Diósgyőr Machine Works asked the Department to investigate the temperature conditions during the hardening of long rods used in the manufacture of gun barrels. Tibor Czibere became involved in this work and it was then that he first encountered one of the defining research topics of his life: thermal conduction problems. As a first result, he defended his doctoral thesis in 1961, entitled “Investigation of the nonlinear thermal conduction problem based on potential theory”.

However, he no longer defended his thesis as a lecturer at the Miskolc University of Heavy Industry. In the meantime, Professor Samu Borbély had left Miskolc and Tibor Czibere accepted a research engineer position at the Ganz-Mávag Locomotive, Wagon and Machine Factory in 1956, due to the space becoming a little too empty for him. His task there was to study and mathematically describe the flow processes in torque converters. To do this, he had to familiarise himself with the procedures and design methods used to describe the flows in electrical machines. His encounter with the field was extremely successful, as after a few years he became an internationally renowned practitioner. He soon continued his research on the design of flow machines in the Central Water Machinery Design Office of Ganz-Mávag. His scientific achievements were recognised by professional circles abroad, and the official recognition in Hungary came with the Kossuth Prize, which he received in 1962 at the age of 32.

Meanwhile, the former head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Alma Mater, Professor Alajos Lancsarics, died in 1963. The leading professors of the university asked Tibor Czibere, a former excellent student and young researcher who had by that time already gained international fame, to head the department. His arrival here brought a qualitative change. A definitive teaching and research profile was established, and industrial and international links were significantly expanded. And the arrival of students, mainly in the applied mechanics sector, has renewed and consolidated the teaching staff, which is capable of high-quality work. This renewal was also marked by the change of the name of the department to the Department of Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Engineering.

His teaching activities were marked by the introduction of several new subjects and his notes on them. The most important field of research in the department has become the study of real flow conditions in electrical machines. Tibor Czibere played a decisive role in this. As a result of his outstanding scientific work, he successfully defended his Candidate’s thesis entitled “Sizing procedure for the design of a straight wing grid consisting of highly curved profiled blades” in 1963, and then obtained the title of Doctor of Engineering in 1967 with his academic doctoral thesis entitled “Potential Theoretic Solution of Two Main Problems of Hydrodynamic Grid Theory”. His outstanding achievements in research on electrical machines have also earned the Department an international reputation.

In 1966, he became Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and then Dean between 1968 and 1974. He continued his research in addition to his management responsibilities. A new topic was the study of laminar and turbulent flow of frictional fluids in boundary layers. In recognition of his outstanding work, he was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1976. His inaugural lecture was entitled “Determination of Planar Boundary Layer Flows with Discontinuous Vortex Layers”.

His outstanding scientific achievements and leadership skills made him a renowned professor at the University, and partly in recognition of this, he was elected Rector of the University in 1978. In 1986, he was awarded the Order of the Star of the Hungarian People’s Republic in the Golden Column of the Order of the Star in recognition of his activities in Hungarian higher education.

His quite exceptional work ethic allowed him to continue his academic activities throughout his term as Rector. In 1980, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Technical University of Brno for scientific research cooperation. In 1985, he received another national recognition: he was elected a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His inaugural lecture was entitled “Shock waves in a gas injector above the speed of sound”.

In 1988, barely a year after the end of Tibor Czibere’s term as rector, he was elected Minister of Culture, one of the greatest tasks of his public life. After a year, he left the Ministry of his own accord and returned to the Department of Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Engineering at the University of Miskolc. He did not take up the post of head of the department, but threw himself into teaching and research with renewed vigour. He has again accepted several invitations and given postgraduate lectures abroad.

After the change of regime, the University of Miskolc started doctoral studies, in the organisation and launch of which he took an extremely active role.

In the period following the launch of research proposals, he won several proposals which were of great importance for the whole research activity of the Department. His scientific work has expanded throughout his career into many new areas, in addition to thermal conduction and hydrodynamic lattice theory. The most important of these are the study of thermal conduction processes accompanied by phase changes and the calculation of turbulent flows in the blade space of flow machines.

In addition to his own scientific activities, he has been the supervisor or scientific director of several doctoral, candidates, academic doctoral and Ph. D. degrees, or to his subordinates or colleagues. In 1996, he was awarded the Albert Szentgyörgyi Prize for his contribution to the development of the scientific school.

Although he retired in 2000, as Professor Emeritus he remained an active lecturer in doctoral education in the Department. In 2000 he was awarded the honorary title of Doctor honoris causa by the University of Miskolc. In recognition of his life’s work, he was awarded the Széchenyi Prize in 2006, and in 2019, he was elected honorary citizen of his hometown, Tapolca.