Josef Hauser S. J.

Josef Hauser S. J. (January 31, 1920 – March 10, 2004) was a Hungarian zoologist and Jesuit priest.

Life Josef Hauser was born in 1920 in southern Hungary. During his childhood and adolescence, he studied in a Jesuit school.

From 1939 to 1941 he went to the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Budapest. There, he had much contact with physicians, but they struggle to understand each other due to language differences. Hauser, however, became interested in Medicine and told the master of the novices about his decision to study the subject at the university. A letter was sent to Rome to announce Hauser's interest, but the idea was rejected. He was then oriented to study natural history in order to "learn everything that physicians know".

In 1943, he was sent to serve in World War II, joining the Hungarian army. He worked at the hospital protecting the trains that transported the injured from Russia to Hungary and Germany. After the war, he moved to Austria and studied German at the Jesuit school Stella Matutina. After concluding his studies there, he went back to the university to conclude the studies he started in Budapest, graduating in 1949.

After graduating, Hauser started his doctoral studies, earning a Ph.D. degree in scholastic philosophy and another in zoology from the University of Innsbruck.

Hauser continued to work as a researcher and priest until his death on March 30, 2004.

Work While working in Innsbruck, Hauser developed a new histological technique that eliminated the use of xylene, a toxic compound that facilitated paraffin infiltration in tissues to be sectioned, by replacing it with isopropyl alcohol, an almost unharmful substance.

Most of Hauser's academic research was dedicated to the study of the diversity, anatomy, physiology and behavior of planarians.

Selected works