Professor Tankó's activity was engaged mainly in the field of organic chemistry - first of all in the chemistry of sugar phosphates - and later in the field of biochemistry. From the beginning he was interested in the chemical changes happening in living organisms. He was witness and participant to the process which resulted - primarily on the ground of chemical research - in the science of biochemistry as it has evolved to a well known, independent research area. Yet, even as a great scientist, he remaind teacher and pedagogue in the real sense of the word. He was working strenuously, extending his attention to every detail, with great thoroughness, and in the same manner he was teaching the students put under his care, and his younger collegues as well. All these qualities, added to them his puritan character, modesty, his spontaneity and his amiable sense of humour created an honest, friendly atmosphere, in which work was partly enjoyment, partly sport too but in any case pleasure.

Of the most important results of his scientific activity the following should be mentioned.

He was the first who proved that at inhibition with sodium fluoride the ester complex being formed in muscular tissues could not be sugar as it did not show characteristic sugar reactions. These results also contributed to recognize the accumulation of phosphoglyceric acid and glycerophosphate and to the formulation of Embden-Meyerhof model of sugar decomposition.

A result of his work made in the famous Institute of Professor Robison in London, was the description of Tankó-Robison ester i.e. fructose-1-phosphate. At the same time he was the first to show the fact that the fundamental phases and intermediates of sugar decomposition in higner-class plants are the same as those described in animal and yeast cells.

Later he described fructose-4-phosphate, a new sugar phosphate intermediate, and during this work he was the first to realize the process of acyl translocation among carbohydrates in acidic medium. The latter fenomenon, partly due to analogies, became later of great significance in the structural study of nucleic acids.

His work was the first Hungarian monography reviewing the chemistry of biological decomposition of sugars.

Professor Tankó made important revelations about the variations of carboxylase enzyme system and the specificity of the enzyme phosphohexose isomerase, as well as about some essential differences between aerobic and anaerobic decompositions of sugars.

His work have realized the practical posibility of the chemical synthesis of Neuberg-ester, one of the hexose phosphates possesing biological importance.

In the later period, working in the Biochemical Institute of University of Medicine in Debrecen, he dealt in detail with the chemistry of nucleic acids as well as with the comparative study of the nucleic acid metabolism in normal and tumorous tissues. He has shown with his coworkers that the characteristic difference in the liver of Brown-Pearce tumorous rabbits was not the thymine content of deoxiribonucleic acids as had been thought before, and described in details the composition of that nucleic acid and its control.

He has shown further that in case of ribonucleic acid - of the same source - different nucleotide compositions could be found in cases of tumorous and control animals. For this purpose he has constructed a new method with his coworkers.

On the subject of experimental methods for nucleic acid research he has written a very important monography as part of a book-series of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which was, in fact, fundamental at that time.

Professor Tankó's very valuable property was his excellent practical sense, he was familiar with almost all areas of natural sciences and technical lines. He always emphasized the importance of interrelations between science and practice and also acted very much for the utilization of biochemical research in industrial practice. His work, during which industrial procedures have been introduced for the production of very important biochemical intermediary compounds, was exemplary in this respect, and by this way he helped at the same time the realization of the export plans of Hungarian chemical industry.

He took part in several international and Hungarian scientific societies, delivered lectures and was always ready to take on voluntary work. He was member of foreign scientific societies e. g. of the English Biochemical Society and Chemical Society, as well as of the Society of Chemical Industry and American Chemical Society. These memberships in themselves indicate the international appreciation of his scientific activity. He had been for several years the Hungarian representative in the FEBS organization. He was also member of the Hungarian Physiological Society and Hungarian Oncological Society, and was the first president of Hungarian Biochemical Society, which was founded in 1962. As president of this Society he was ardently working to establish coordination and cooperation with other societies, among them with the Biochemical Section of the Hungarian Chemical Society.

Professor Tankó is remebered with love and is greatly respected by his pupils colleagues and friends. His humanity and his scientific activity should be an example to all those, who look upon the study of the chemistry of living material as their vocation.

From the proceedings of the 1979 Congress of the Hungarian Biochemical Society