"I was born with ambition and a sense of duty not only to one nation but towards the whole of humanity. In order to satisfy these urges and to retain my own independence, my aim in life will be best achieved, as far as I can see at present, if I follow a career in science."
(L. Eötvös)
Eötvös was a modest scientist. He shunned the limelight, disliked noisy ceremonies, and did not seek moral or financial reward. In spite of this he was highly acclaimed, and received awards at home and abroad for his scientific work and skill as an organizer. Among the very many awards he received were the French Legion of Honour, the Franz Josef award from the Hungarian king, the Saint Sava award from the king of Serbia. He was also elected honorary member of the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin and was given honorary doctorates from Jagello University in Cracow and the Norwegian Royal Frederick University in Christiania (now Oslo). In addition to the above, many other honours were bestowed on him, and he was elected an officer of social and scientific organizations.
It was obvious that Eötvös was a well balanced individual. Besides his intensive mental work he always found time for relaxation and sport. He often cycled, went riding and regularly made the more than 12 kilometre journey from his home to the university on horseback. In the summer he indulged in his passion for rock climbing. He ranked among the best mountaineers in his time. As an enthusiastic photographer, he took hundreds of pictures during his mountaineering excursions.
The first exhibition of amateur photographers was organised in Hungary at 1890. On that occasion a gold medal was awarded to Eötvös by Princess Maria Theresa, the exhibition’s chief patron.
In later years his daughters accompanied him on his expeditions, and also became keen alpinists. Eötvös' climbing achievements in the Southern Tirol made the "Hungarian professor's" name so well-known that in 1902 a peak of 2837 metres in the Dolomites (Italy) was named after him: Cima di Eötvös (Eötvös peak).
In the company of friends he often joked that he was prouder of his mountaineering successes than his discovery of the torsion balance. For many years, as president of the Hungarian Touring Society, he achieved a great deal in the popularization of tourism in Hungary.
This instrument is practically the same as a Coulomb balance. It is sensitive to the variation in direction of the gravity field. A separate telescope is used to take readings. The first Eötvös torsion balance, sensitive both to the direction and magnitude variations of the gravity field. With this instrument Eötvös carried out his first field measurements, on Ság Hill, Transdanubia, in August 1891. An improved version of the horizontal variometer. For easier handling the telescope is built on the frame of the balance. It gained the award of Grand Prix at the Paris world exposition. It was with this instrument that Eötvös carried out his first regional measurements on the frozen Lake Balaton in the winters of 1901 and 1903. To reduce observation time, two balances are built in antiparallel arrangement into one instrument. Eötvös, Pekár and Fekete used this instrument in their experiments to study the proportionality of inertial and gravitational masses, bringing them the Beneke award. Their results provided a new and high-precision corroboration of Einstein's theory of relativity. It was for this reason that the organizers of the Einstein centenary exhibition in Washington (1979) borrowed this instrument and gave it pride of place. Eötvös became concerned with the question of the proportionality of inertial and gravitational mass by the end of the 1880s. In order to examine this phenomenon, he used his sensitive torsion balance. He examined the state of equilibrium of the balance by attaching masses of different composition to each end of the arm of the balance. If the magnitude of gravity depended on the composition of the mass, the state of equilibrium should change in each case. This phenomenon did not occur. In 1908 Eötvös and his colleagues, Jenő Fekete and Dezső Pekár, perfected their measurements to such an extent that they were able to establish that the difference between the inertial and gravitational mass was at most 1/200,000,000. Their paper on the subject won them Göttingen University's Beneke award. The experiments carried out by Eötvös and his colleagues on the proportionality of inertial and gravitational mass provided experimental support for Einstein's theory of relativity. Problems of gravity observations on the Atlantic, the Indian and the Pacific oceans by O. Hecker for the determination of the Earth’ figure made Eötvös realize that the weight of moving bodies on the Earth's surface depended on their direction and velocity.
As the Earth rotates from west to east, the centrifugal force on a moving object is greater if it moves towards the east than towards the west. As a result of this phenomenon the weight of a body moving eastwards will decrease, while that moving westwards will increase. For example the weight of a man walking eastwards is less than if he is walking westwards. The difference would be 2 grams.
The international scientific community recognizes this phenomenon as the Eötvös Effect. Special device to demonstrate the Eötvös effect. It is basically a balance with a horizontal beam, with a mass attached to each end instead of pans. When the balance is rotated the mass moving towards the west will become heavier, the one moving towards the east lighter. The balance will, therefore, be deflected from its state of equilibrium. If the balance is rotated at such a speed that the rotation period equals the period of its oscillation the impulses occurring during the rotations will cause the balance to make ever greater oscillations.
"The true natural scientist ... finds pleasure in research itself and in those results that help to increase the prosperity of mankind."
(L. Eötvös)

In the framework of the UNESCO Eötvös-year – commemorating the centenary of the world-famous scientist’s death – has realized the erection of the statue by 11^th of November, 2020.
The statue for baron Loránd Eötvös has erected by the


Because of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the dedication of statue was postponed to the 5^th of October, 2021. The statue was dedicated by
Dr. Balázs Fürjes Secretary of State, Zoltán Pokorni Mayor of the Hegyvidék Local Council, and András Pályi President of the Loránd Eötvös Geophysical Foundation.