Árpád János Pusztai (8 September 1930 – 17 December 2021) was a Hungarian-born British biochemist and nutritionist who spent 36 years at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. He was a world expert on plant lectins, authoring 270 papers and three books on the subject. In 1998, Árpád Pusztai publicly announced that the results of his research showed feeding genetically modified potatoes to rats had negative effects on their stomach lining and immune system. This led to scientific criticism. Pusztai was suspended and his annual contract was not renewed. The resulting controversy became known as the Pusztai affair. Life and career Pusztai was born in Budapest, Hungary, on 8 September 1930. He was a student of the high school Óbudai Árpád Gimnázium and later obtained a diploma in chemistry in 1953 from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He worked for three years as an associate scientist at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences before the Hungarian revolution against Soviet control in 1956. After the failed revolution, Pusztai escaped to a refugee camp in Austria and from there made his way to England. He completed his doctorate in biochemistry at the Lister Institute in London and continued there with his post-doctorate. In 1963, he was invited to join the Protein Research Department at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland. Pusztai worked at the Rowett Institute for the next 36 years, predominately studying plant lectins. During that time, he discovered glycoproteins in plants, authored over 270 research papers, published 3 books, and was considered an "internationally renowned expert on lectins". He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1988 and has received fellowships from the Leverhulme Trust. Árpád Pusztai was married to Dr Susan Bardócz, with whom he worked at the Rowett Institute following their. He has two daughters from his first marriage and a stepson from his marriage to Dr. Bardócz. He died at his home in Aberdeen on December 17, 2021, at the age of 91. Pusztai affair In 1995, Pusztai began research on genetically modified potatoes containing the GNA lectin gene from the snowdrop plant. His research team fed raw and cooked genetically modified potatoes to rats, using Desiree Red potatoes as controls. In 1998, Pusztai said in an interview on a World in Action programme that his group had observed damage to the intestines and immune systems of rats fed the genetically