Articles
DEDICATION TO MIKLOS FAUST 1927–1998
Miklos Faust, was born in Hungary in 1927. He received his B.Sc. and his basic horticultural training in the College of Horticulture and Viticulture in Budapest, Hungary.
In 1957, after the revolt in Hungary, he left with his family to the USA. He received his M.Sc. in Horticulture from Rutgers University in New Jersey in 1960, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University in New York where he worked on post harvest physiology of fruits under Prof.
R.M. Smock in 1965. Miklos spent a one-year post-doctoral fellowship at Cornell University’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva.
In 1966 Miklos joined the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA in Beltsville, Maryland, as a plant physiologist and later served as chief of the fruit laboratory until 1992. Miklos retired in 1995, but remained active in horticultural research until his death on June 6 1998. During most of his career Miklos was an adjunct professor of horticulture in The University of Maryland.
During his over 30 years of activity in the USDA, Miklos acquired a worldwide reputation as a horticulturist with great breadth who managed to combine innovative basic research and applied work aimed at solving horticultural problems in the USA and world wide.
In addition to his first interest in post harvest physiology of fruits, Miklos published papers on anthocyanin color development in apples; carbohydrate metabolism in pome fruits; effect of ionized radiation on preserving fruits; mineral element disorders with special emphasis on calcium and its translocation; the effect of plant nutrition on post harvest physiology of the fruit; effect of irradiation on carbohydrates metabolism; and ultrastructure studies of apples and nectarines.
In the early 1980’s he became interested in four new fields: dwarfing orchards, nitrogen metabolism and growth regulators; flower bud differentiation; stress effects on trees with special attention to photosynthesis; and dormancy of fruit trees.
During the last ten years of his life he put his main efforts into studying the physiology of dormancy and has advanced with his colleagues two relatively new fields: the change in lipids in membranes of dormant and breaking buds and the change in the water status of buds in dormancy and bud break.
At the same time he published a few papers and reviews on the importance of polyamines in plants and on antioxidant significance in breaking dormancy.
He published one book: Physiology of temperate-zone fruit trees in 1989 a basic book in its category.
In his last years, he traced the origin and distribution of the main cultivated temperate fruit species.
He published reviews on the origin of the peach, the cherry, the plum and the apricot.
The scope of his interests testify to his active mind and to his extreme breadth of knowledge in plant physiology and horticulture.
Side by side with his activity in advancing horticultural science, Miklos kept a close contact with growers and frequently published popular articles in the areas of his interest.
He was close not only to the fruit production industry in the US but had a more global perspective and was aware of the situation of horticulture worldwide.
He had collaboration with many researchers in other countries like Hungary, China, Poland, Italy and Israel, as can be seen from his numerous publications.
He gave an helping hand to many researchers from other countries that were looking for help.
He devoted special attention to developing countries especially to Hungary and later to the Peoples Republic of China.
He was a consultant to the World Bank and the FAO, and hence traveled frequently and was recognized world wide.
Miklos received various honors: twice for best research paper by the American Society for Horticultural Science; he was elected Fellow of the ASHS in 1977 and was