Lajos Jánossy (2.03.1912-2.03.1978) was a Hungarian physicist and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1950), and its vice-president in 1958-73. He was born in Budapest. He studied at the University of Vienna and graduated from the University of Berlin (1935). In 1939 — 47 he worked at the University of Manchester, and in 1947 — 50 he was professor at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. From 1950 he was professor at the University of Budapest, and in 1956 —70 director of the Central Research Institute for Physics.
His research was in cosmic-ray physics, nuclear physics, elementary particle physics and the methodology of physics. In 1940, together with G. Rochester, he discovered penetrating showers. In 1943 he proposed a mechanism for the formation of cosmic-ray mesons, the process of multiple production, and explained the production of mesons by the nucleus.
A member of a number of academies of sciences and learned societies. The L. Kossuth Prize (1951).