During his long and distinguished career, Professor Horváth was the first scientist to design, construct and
show molecular separations using high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC -- now called high-performance
liquid chromatography), which has become a billion-dollar business and has led to many discoveries in the
fields of medicine, biochemistry and biology. Used to separate and analyze proteins and nucleic acids, HPLC is
an indispensable technology in the pharmaceutical industry for analysis and purification of molecules utilized
in the treatment of illnesses such as heart disease, and circulatory and neurological disorders. Professor
Horváth and his colleagues have also collaborated with researchers at the School of Medicine to create new
chemical tests to identify differences in composition of cancer cells and normal cells.
In addition to advancing the evolution of HPLC, Professor Horváth studied electrophoretic separation
techniques for biological substances and developed novel processes for ultra purification of proteins and the
separation of complex carbohydrates. Along with this biochemical separation work, Professor Horváth was one
of the pioneers in enzyme technology, particularly immobilized-enzyme reactors.
Born in Hungary, Csaba Horváth was educated in Hungary and Germany and received his Ph.D. in physical
chemistry from the Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt in 1963. Prior to that, he had worked for some
years as a plant manager in Frankfurt. After obtaining his degree, he became a postdoctoral fellow at the
Massachusetts General Hospital associated with Harvard University.
He was a research associate at Yale School of Medicine 1964-1970 and was appointed associate professor of
engineering and applied science in 1972. He became professor in 1979 and was chair of the Department of
Chemical Engineering 1987-1993. During that time, he was also named the Llewellyn West Jones Professor of
Chemical Engineering and in 1998 the Roberto C. Goizueta Professor of Chemical Engineering.
Professor Horváth's many discoveries and developments helped revolutionize research in biology and
biotechnology. He was among the leaders informing the new field of bioengineering and was a founding fellow
of the American Institute of Medical and Biomedical Engineers. This field is now a separate section of the
National Academy of Engineering, an institution to which Professor Horváth was elected this year.
Professor Horváth received numerous international awards. A partial list of his honors include the Tswett
Award from the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, the Humboldt Award for U.S. Senior Scientists, numerous
recognitions from the American Chemical Society, the Merit Award from the National Institutes of Health and a
gold medal from the Chromatography Society of the United Kingdom. In 2003, he received the Torbern
Bergman Medal from the Swedish Chemical Society.
A prolific researcher, Professor Horváth served on the boards of many prestigious journals, authored or co-
authored nearly 300 papers and book chapters, and held numerous patents under his name. He served on
numerous review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, and was a
member of many professional organizations, such as the American Chemical Society, the Institute of Food
Technologies and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Csaba Passaed away on April 13, 2004 in New Haven. He was 74 years old.
"Csaba was an inspirational researcher whose discoveries and high degree of professional excellence brought
credit to Yale University for several decades," says Paul Fleury, dean of Yale Engineering. "His loyalty and
dedication to his students was only matched by theirs to him. He was a colleague valued by his department
and the rest of the Faculty of Engineering, but also by the entire Yale community. We are deeply saddened by
his untimely passing and offer our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends."