Banga Ilona Health Sciences Training Center handed over at SZTE

The Banga Ilona Health Sciences Training Center of the University of Szeged was officially handed over on November 21, 2023, as part of a project closing ceremony.

One of the most significant projects in the history of the University of Szeged was closed and handed over on Tuesday. The grandiose building of the former surgery clinic located in the Szent-Györgyi Albert Clinical Center has been completely renovated and modernized.

Ilona Banga — whom the renovated building was named after — was one of the most outstanding students and first assistant of Albert Szent-Györgyi. Later she became the first female professor of the University of Szeged.

The development of the Banga Ilona Health Science Training Center, located at 6 Szőkefalvi-Nagy Béla Street, is important both at the regional and university level. The new center will have a significant impact on all three basic tasks of the university, gathering the innovations that the SZTE's researchers and doctors initiate in the fields of education, research, and treatment.

Prof. Dr. László Rovó, rector of SZTE, greeted the participants of the handover ceremony in front of the building of the new Health Sciences Training Center, including Ilona Banga's son, Prof. Dr. József Mátyás Baló-Banga, and great-granddaughter, Emese Németh, who is a medical student.

“This event is very important from the point of view of our university and the entire Hungarian medical education. Two iconic things are now officially intertwined: an excellent female researcher and an excellent building. The new training citadel is a fitting tribute to Ilona Banga and her work. In the former surgical clinic, unique and pioneering interventions were performed in Hungary — in many cases for the first time in the country — such as living donor kidney transplantation. This building is a tool that the followers of the school founded by Albert Szent-Györgyi and Ilona Banga can use in their research, several of which can be awarded the Nobel Prize in the future” said the rector.

“One of the largest investments of the University of Szeged has now been completed. We are pleased that the independent training block related to health sciences has been created, which was sorely missed at the University of Szeged. The building combines traditions, it's grandiose and modern at the same time. Albert Szent-Györgyi and Ilona Banga worked in this building, and now it awaits the students, teachers, and researchers of the University of Szeged with 21st-century technology, modern seminar rooms, skill labs, a cadaver operating room, and an animal house” said Dr. Judit Fendler, chancellor of the University of Szeged.

Ilona Banga's son, Prof. Dr. József Mátyás Baló-Banga, also chose a medical career. In his presentation, he talked about his relationship with his mother, as well as the turning points and difficulties of the research professor's career. Prof. Baló-Banga donated a few very special items from his mother's legacy to the University of Szeged, among other things, the handwritten letters of Albert Szent-Györgyi and his first assistant and outstanding student, Ilona Banga.

As part of the building handover ceremony, the SZTE Innovation Awards were handed out, while later those interested could tour the building with Prof. Dr. Mihály Boros, head of the department.

Photos: Szilvia Molnar / Szegedify