Visit by Dr. Akos Torok
May 2004

Dr. Akos Torok, a geologist who is Associate Professor in the Department of Construction Materials and Engineering Geology at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary, visited the Institute for Masonry and Construction Research from the 1st to the 5th of May 2004.

Dr. Torok, who holds M.Sc. and Ph.D.degrees in geology, as well as an M.Sc. in environmental engineering and science, lectures undergraduate students and graduate students in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Geology at Budapest University. He has participated in several bilateral scientific and research programmes on stone weathering and atmospheric pollution and has published numerous papers on this and other subjects, as well as 7 book chapters (4 in English and 3 in Hungarian).

During his visit to the University of Malta, Dr. Torok gave a number of lectures to the postgraduate students of the Institute for Masonry and Construction Research. Lectures were held on the properties of building and ornamental stones and their recognition, including also a practical session where the students learnt how to recognise various stones through the examination of hand held specimens as well as thin sections

Other lectures were on the laboratory testing of building stones, the alteration of stone properties due to weathering, stone decay features and their field description, and case studies.

Dr. Torok also gave a Public Lecture organised by the Institute for Masonry and Construction Research in collaboration with Heritage Malta, held at the headquarters of Heritage Malta in Valletta. This lecture, entitled Environmental Thinking: Memory of Stones. What can we learn from the building stones of Budapest started by giving some general background to Budapest, its monuments and their conservation problems, and then concentrated on the case study of the Hungarian Houses of Parliament. The audience heard about this magnificent building, which comprises 691 rooms, immense halls and over 12.5 miles of corridors, and which is currently undergoing restoration.