The “Paprika Diploma”
Upon his return, the Nobel laureate is presented with a mock “Paprika Diploma” in a light-hearted tribute from colleagues
Designed by Zsuzsa Györffy, the “official document” referenced in the title is essentially a work of art in its own right – and a real curiosity for posterity. It is noteworthy that Györffy had also created the certificate Szent-Györgyi received when he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university in Szeged. Interestingly, not much is known about the designer, except that she was the daughter of Professor István Györffy, who headed the Institute of General and Systematic Botany in Szeged as well as the University’s botanical garden, serving in these roles between 1921 and 1940. In the 1939–40 university yearbook, Zsuzsa Györffy is listed among the staff of the Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry as an unpaid intern. At that time, this institute was also headed by Szent-Györgyi, acting as interim director. The diploma, framed in silver, was originally made in color and featured a life-sized red pepper hanging from it by a silk cord as a seal. (Today, only a black-and-white copy remains.)
Illustrated with wit, the “Paprika Diploma” brims with creativity. Caught in the swirl of a paprika centrifuge, Professor Szent-Györgyi, surrounded by dancing lemons and peppers, is depicted earnestly smoking his pipe – just as he did in real life. His favorite sports are also portrayed: a test tube equipped with skis and ski poles marches along; two pepper fruits play tennis; one skates; another rides a motorcycle; and a lemon sails on top of the waves. There are also some gramophone records in the picture, most likely in reference to Szent-Györgyi’s gramophone-related invention. A weeping cow, mourning the loss of her kidney, is shown beneath an airplane transporting bovine kidneys. (While working in the US, Szent-Györgyi processed hundreds of kilograms of bovine adrenal glands to extract just a few grams of ascorbic acid.) The illustration also features some of the professor’s colleagues in various funny situations. For instance, it is possible to identify Ilona Banga, portrayed as the woman seated in the dish of a longish apparatus – a Warburg manometer – which occupies most of the left side of the drawing. Mihály Gerendás is shown scaling the manometer. The slender figure at the bottom is Brunó F. Straub. To his left is Kálmán Laki.
Albert Szent-Györgyi among his colleagues in Szeged
This group photo features the staff of the Institute of Medical Chemistry and the Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. From 1935 to 1940, while heading the Institute of Medical Chemistry, Szent-Györgyi also served as acting department head of the Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The photo also shows Zsuzsa Györffy, the designer of the “Paprika Diploma”.
Shown standing (left to right): F. Brunó Straub, Margit Kovács Oskolás, Dénes Kőszegi, Győző Bruckner, Ilona Banga, Albert Szent-Györgyi, Elemér Vinkler, Margit Zétényi, Ernő Annau, Kálmán Laki, Zsuzsa Györffy, László Bencze, Jenő Ernst, and József Simonyi. Shown sitting (left to right): Tamás Erdős, Nándor Tomori, unknown, Jenő Mórocz, and Tibor Kováts.
In April 1938, the special “Paprika Diploma” was put on public display at an exhibition organized by the Szeged Guild of Fine Artists.
On display at the exhibition were three additional certificates that Szent-Györgyi had been awarded following the receipt of the Nobel Prize. In the upstairs gallery of the Szeged Hall of Industry, the Nobel diploma, the honorary citizenship certificate from the city of Szeged, the “Paprika Diploma”, and Szent-Györgyi’s honorary doctorate diploma – awarded by the university just that month – were showcased on rare heritage embroidery from the village of Kalotaszeg.
On Page 5 of its April 27, 1938 issue, the daily Délmagyarország featured an article that reported on the exhibition and also contained a printed version of the text from the Paprika Diploma. http://dmarchiv.bibl.u-szeged.hu/8533/1/dm_1938_092.pdf (last accessed: September 10, 2021)