Education has been of prime interest to Poland's rulers since the early 12th century. The catalog of the library of the Cathedral Chapter inKraków dating from 1110 shows that Polish scholars already then had access to westernEuropean literature. In 1364, KingCasimir III the Great founded theCracow Academy, which would become one of the great universities of Europe.[1] The Polish people have made considerable contributions in the fields of science, technology and mathematics.[2] The list of famous scientists in Poland begins in earnest with thepolymath,astronomer andmathematicianNicolaus Copernicus, who formulated theheliocentric theory and sparked the EuropeanScientific Revolution.[3]
After thethird partition of Poland, in 1795, no Polish state existed.[5] The 19th and 20th centuries saw many Polish scientists working abroad. One of them wasMaria Skłodowska-Curie, a physicist and chemist living in France. Another noteworthy one wasIgnacy Domeyko, a geologist and mineralogist who worked in Chile.[6]
Today Poland has over 100 institutions of post-secondary education—technical, medical, economic, as well as500 universities—which are located in most major cities such asGdańsk,Kraków,Lublin,Łódź,Poznań,Rzeszów,Toruń,Warsaw andWrocław.[10] They employ over 61,000 scientists and scholars. Another 300 research and development institutes are home to some 10,000 researchers. There are, in addition, a number of smaller laboratories. All together, these institutions support some 91,000 scientists and scholars.
Lidia Morawska, Polish-Australian physicist whose work focuses on fundamental and applied research in the interdisciplinary field ofair quality and its impact on human health, with a specific focus on atmospheric fine, ultrafine andnanoparticles. In 2020, she contributed to the area of airborne infection transmission of viruses, includingCOVID-19.[14]
Graphene acquisition, in 2011 the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology and Department of Physics,Warsaw University announced a joint development of acquisition technology of large pieces of graphene with the best quality so far.[22] In April the same year, Polish scientists with support from the Polish Ministry of Economy began the procedure for granting a patent to their discovery around the world.[23]
Aleksander Wolszczan, Polish astronomer who, in 1992, co-discovered the first everextrasolar planet –PSR 1257+12, a pulsar located 2,630 light years from Earth. It is believed to be orbited by at least four planets.[37]
Foundation For Polish Science – a non-governmental organisation aiming at supporting academics with high potential – since (1991)[42]
Stanisław Kamiński, Polish aeronautical engineer, designer ofPZL W-3 Sokół, a helicopter, FAA certificate in (1989)[43]
Paul Baran, Polish-American engineer who was a pioneer in the development ofcomputer networks; he was one of the two independent inventors ofpacket switching, which is today the dominant basis for data communications in computer networks worldwide.[44]
Henryk Magnuski, Polish telecommunications engineer who worked forMotorola inChicago. He was the inventor of the firstWalkie-Talkies and one of the authors of his company success in the fields of radio communication.[45]
PT-91, Polish main battle tank. Designed at the Research and Development Centre of Mechanical Systems OBRUM (Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Urządzeń Mechanicznych) inGliwice
Andrzej Trybulec, Polish mathematician who designed theMizar system in 1973. The system consists of a formal language for writing mathematical definitions and proofs, aproof assistant, which is able to mechanically check proofs written in this language, and a library of formalized mathematics, which can be used in the proof of new theorems; it was designed by[52]
Andrzej Udalski, initiator of theOGLE project, which led to the such significant discoveries as the detection of the first merger of a binary star, first Cepheid pulsating stars in the eclipsing binary systems, unique nova systems, quasars and galaxies.[56]
Tomasz Dietl, Polish physicist; known for developing the theory, confirmed in recent years, of diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors, and for demonstrating new methods in controlling magnetization.[61]
Ball and stick model of a single layer of theKevlar crystal structure.
Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist of Polish origin, who in 1965 created the first of a family of synthetic fibers of exceptional strength and stiffness. The best-known member isKevlar, a material used in protective vests as well as in boats, airplanes, ropes, cables, and much more—in total about 200 applications.[63]
Andrzej Szczeklik, Polish immunologist; credited with discovering the anti-thrombotic properties ofaspirin, and studies on the pathogenesis and treatment of aspirin-induced bronchialasthma.[64]
A diagram by theJoint Institute for Nuclear Research showing the measured (boxed) and predictedhalf-lives of superheavynuclides, ordered by number of protons and neutrons. The expected location of the island of stability aroundZ = 112 is circled.
Zbigniew Religa, Polishcardiac surgeon; a pioneer in human heart transplantation; in 1987 he performed the first successfulheart transplant in Poland;[83] in 1995 he was the first surgeon to graft an artificial valve created from materials taken from human corpses; in 2004 Religa and his team developed an implantable pump for a pneumatic heart assistance system.
Tadeusz Krwawicz, Polishophthalmologist; he pioneered the use ofcryosurgery in ophthalmology;[85] he was the first to describe a method ofcataract extraction by cryoadhesion in 1961,[86] and to develop a probe by means of which cataracts can be grasped and extracted.
Diagram showing the Lagrangian points of the Earth–Moon system.Kordylewski clouds exist in the regions ofL4 andL5.
Marian Rejewski, Polish mathematician who was among the team of Polish cryptologists who broke theEnigma machine in the 1930s. In 1938, he designed theCryptologic bomb, a special-purpose machine to speed the breaking of the Enigma machineciphers that would be used byNazi Germany inWorld War II. It was a forerunner of the "Bombes" that would be used by the British atBletchley Park, and which would be a major element in the AlliedUltra program that may have decided the outcome ofWorld War II.[111][112]
Jan Czochralski, Polish chemist credited with inventing theCzochralski method, a technique of crystal growth used to obtain single crystals ofsemiconductors (e.g. silicon, germanium and gallium arsenide), metals (e.g. palladium, platinum, silver, gold) and salts (1916). The method is still used in over 90 percent of all electronics in the world that use semiconductors.[113]
Wacław Struszyński, a Polish electronics engineer who made a vital contribution to the defeat ofU-boats in theBattle of the Atlantic, he designed a radio antenna which enabled effective high frequency (HF) radio direction finding systems to be installed onRoyal Navy convoy escort ships. Such direction finding systems were referred to as HF/DF orHuff-Duff, and enabled the bearings of U-boats to be determined when the U-boats made high frequency radio transmissions.[117]
Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish mathematician and logician who invented thePolish notation, also known as prefix notation, is a method of mathematical expression (1920).[120]
Zygmunt Pulawski, Polish aircraft designer. He designed in the early 1930sPZL P.11, Polishfighter aircraft. It was briefly the most advanced fighter aircraft of its kind in the world.
Zbysław Ciołkosz, Polish aircraft designer who designedLWS-6 Żubr, initially a passenger plane. Since the Polish airlineLOT bought Douglas DC-2 planes instead, the project was converted to a bomber aircraft (early-1930s).
Michał Kalecki, Polisheconomist; he has been called "one of the most distinguished economists of the 20th century",[146] he made major theoretical and practical contributions in the areas of thebusiness cycle,growth,full employment,income distribution, the political boom cycle, the oligopolistic economy, andrisk; he offered a synthesis that integrated Marxist class analysis and the then-new literature onoligopoly theory, and his work had a significant influence on both theNeo-Marxian andPost-Keynesian schools of economic thought; he was also one of the first macroeconomists to applymathematical models and statistical data to economic questions.
Stefan Drzewiecki, Polish engineer and inventor who constructed the world's first electricsubmarine in 1884.[156] He developed several models of propeller-driven submarines that evolved from single-person vessels to a four-man model; he developed theblade element theory (1885), the theory of gliding flight, developed a method for the manufacture of ship and plane propellers (1892), and presented a general theory for screw-propeller thrust (1920); he also developed several models of early submarines for theRussian Navy, and devised a torpedo-launching system for ships and submarines that bears his name, theDrzewiecki drop collar; he also made an instrument that drew the precise routes of ships onto a nautical chart; his workTheorie générale de l'hélice (1920), was honored by theFrench Academy of Sciences as fundamental in the development of modernpropellers.
Tadeusz Tański, Polish automobile engineer and the designer of, among others, the first Polish serially-built automobile, theCWS T-1
Adolf Beck, Polish physiologist, a pioneer ofelectroencephalography (EEG); in 1890 he published an investigation of spontaneous electrical activity of the brain of rabbits and dogs that included rhythmic oscillations altered by light; Beck started experiments on the electrical brain activity of animals; his observation of fluctuating brain activity led to the conclusion ofbrain waves.[159]
Władysław Starewicz, Polish-Russian pioneering film director andstop-motionanimator, he is notable as the author of the first puppet-animated film i.e.The Beautiful Lukanida (1912).[160]
Henryk Derczyński, Polish photographer. He developed the isohelia technology, a technique that sharpens contrasts and defines three-dimensional images.[163]
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian and Soviet rocket scientist of Polish descent. He pioneeredastronautics and is considered one of the pioneers ofspace flight and the founding father of modern rocketry and astronautics.[164][165]
Jerzy Rudlicki, Polishaerospace engineer and pilot. He is best known for his inventing and patenting of theV-tail in 1930, which is an aircraft tail configuration that combines the rudder and elevators into one system.[168]
Frank Piasecki, American engineer of Polish descent known as ahelicopter aviation pioneer. He pioneeredtandem rotor helicopter designs and created the compound helicopter concept of vectored thrust using a ducted propeller.[171]
Zygmunt Wróblewski andKarol Olszewski, the first to liquefy oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in a stable state (not, as had been the case up to then, in a dynamic state in the transitional form as vapour) (1833).[176]
Jan Szczepanik, Polish inventor, with several hundred patents and over 50 discoveries to his name, many of which are still applied today, especially in the motion picture industry, as well as in photography and television, which includetelectroscope andcolorimeter.[183]
Edward Flatau, Polishneurologist andpsychiatrist, his name in medicine is linked to Redlich-Flatau syndrome, Flatau-Sterlingtorsion dystonia, Flatau-Schidler disease and Flatau's law. He published a human brain atlas (1894), wrote a fundamental book on migraine (1912), established the localization principle of long fibers in the spinal cord (1893), and with Sterling published an early paper (1911) on progressive torsion spasm in children and suggested that the disease has a genetic component.
Kazimierz Prószyński, Polish inventor active in the field of cinema; he patented his first film camera, calledPleograph, before theLumière brothers, and later went on to improve the cinema projector for theGaumont company, as well as invent the widely used hand-heldAeroscope camera.[187]
Stanisław Kierbedź, Polish-Russianengineer, and military officer; he constructed the first permanent iron bridge over theVistula River inWarsaw known as theKierbedź Bridge; he designed and supervised the construction of dozens of bridges, railway lines, ports and other objects in Central and Eastern Europe.
Ludwik Rydygier, Polish surgeon; in 1880, as the first in Poland and second in the world he succeeded in surgical removal of thepylorus in a patient suffering from stomach cancer,[201] he was also the first to document this procedure; in 1881, as the first in the world, he carried out apeptic ulcerresection; in 1884 he introduced a new method of surgical peptic ulcer treatment usingGastroenterostomy; Rydygier proposed (1900) original concepts for removing prostatic adenoma and introduced many other surgical techniques that are successfully used to date.[202]
Jan Dzierżoń, a pioneering Polishapiarist who discovered the phenomenon ofparthenogenesis in bees[203] and designed the first successful movable-framebeehive (1838);[204] his discoveries and innovations made him world-famous in scientific and bee-keeping circles; he has been described as "the father ofapiculture".
Karol Adamiecki, Polish engineer and management theorist. He invented a novel means of displaying interdependent processes so as to enhance the visibility of production schedules (1896). With minor modifications, Adamiecki's chart is now more commonly referred to in English as theGantt chart.[213]
Justyn Karliński [pl], physician and epidemiologist, who discovered over 20 bacteria inBosnian waters. The discovery enabled the development of vaccines for numerous infectious diseases of humans and animals.[216]
Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, Polish philosopher, mathematician, physicist, inventor, lawyer, occultist and economist. In mathematics, he is known for introducing a novel series expansion for a function in response toJoseph Louis Lagrange's use of infinite series. The coefficients in Wroński's new series form theWronskian. He is also known for designingcontinuous track.[219]
Felix Wierzbicki, physician and geographer, author ofCalifornia as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region, the first English-language geographic overview and guide to California (1849)[220]
Ignacy Domeyko – geologist and mineralogist, a geological map of Chile, describing the Jurassic rock formations, and discovered deposits of a rare mineral (1846).[221]
Paweł Strzelecki, Polish explorer and geologist; in 1840 he climbed the highest peak on mainlandAustralia and named itMount Kosciuszko; he made a geological and mineralogical survey of theGippsland region in present-day easternVictoria and from 1840 to 1842 he explored nearly every part ofTasmania; author ofPhysical Description of New South Wales (1845).[222][223][224]
Wojciech Jastrzębowski, Polish scientist, naturalist and inventor, professor of botany, physics, zoology and horticulture; considered as one of the fathers ofergonomics
Engraving of Hevelius' 46 m (150 ft) focal-lengthtelescope.
Adam Adamandy Kochański, Polish mathematician, physicist andclockmaker found an approximation of π today called the Kochański's Approximation (1685).[230] He also suggested replacing the clock's pendulum with a spring (1659), constructed a clock with a magnetic pendulum (1667), and was the author of the world's first systematic paper on the construction of clocks.
Johannes Hevelius was an astronomer who published the earliest exact maps of the moon and the most complete star catalog of his time, containing 1,564 stars. In 1641 he built an observatory in his house; he is known as "the founder of lunar topography".[231]
Jan Brożek (Ioannes Broscius) was the most prominent 17th-century Polish mathematician. Following his death, his collection ofNicolaus Copernicus' letters and documents, which he had borrowed 40 years earlier with the intent of writing a biography of Copernicus, was lost.
Michał Boym, PolishJesuit missionary to China, scientist and explorer; he is notable as one of the first westerners to travel within the Chinese mainland, and the author of numerous works on Asian fauna, flora and geography. He was the first in Europe to describeKorea as a peninsula, as until then it was believed to be an island, and the first in Europe to establish the factual location of a number of Chinese cities and theGreat Wall of China.[233]
Adam Freytag, mathematician and military engineer, wroteArchitectura militaris nova et aucta, the first manual of bastion fortifications of the so-called Old Dutch system (1631).
Jan Jonston, Polish scholar and physician of Scottish descent; author ofThautomatographia naturalis (1632) andIdea universae medicinae practicae (1642)
Michał Sędziwój, who discovered that air is not a single substance and contains a life-giving substance (later calledoxygen), on a painting byJan Matejko.
Michał Sędziwój, Polishalchemist,philosopher, and medical doctor; a pioneer ofchemistry, he developed ways of purification and creation of various acids, metals and other chemical compounds; he discovered that air is not a single substance and contains a life-giving substance-later calledoxygen 170 years before similar discoveries byScheele andPriestley; he correctly identified this 'food of life' with the gas (also oxygen) given off by heating nitre (saltpetre); this substance, the 'central nitre', had a central position in Sendivogius' schema of the universe.[234]
Josephus Struthius, he published in 1555Sphygmicae artis iam mille ducentos perditae et desideratae libri V. in which he described five types ofpulse, the diagnostic meaning of those types, and the influence of body temperature and nervous system on pulse. This was one of books used byWilliam Harvey in his works
Adam of Łowicz, Polish physician, philosopher, andhumanist; author ofFundamentum scienciae nobilissimae secretorum naturae.[238]
Albert Brudzewski, Polish astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and diplomat. He was the author ofCommentum planetarium in theoricas Georgii Purbachii and was the first to state that theMoon moves in anellipse and always shows its same side to theEarth.[239]
Witelo (ca. 1230 – ca. 1314), was a philosopher and a scientist who specialized inoptics. His famous optical treatise,Perspectiva, which drew on the ArabicBook of Optics byAlhazen, was unique inLatin literature and helped give rise toRoger Bacon's best work. In 1284, he described thereflection andrefraction of light.[241] In addition to optics, Witelo's treatise made important contributions to thepsychology ofvisual perception.
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^Taylor, John W.R., ed. (1983).Jane's all the World's Aircraft 1982–83 (73rd ed.). London: Jane's Publishing Company. pp. 169–170.ISBN978-0-7106-0748-5.
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^Naumowicz, Adam; Artur Korniłowicz (2009). "A Brief Overview of Mizar".Theorem Proving in Higher Order Logics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 5674. pp. 67–72.doi:10.1007/978-3-642-03359-9_5.ISBN978-3-642-03358-2.
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^Kokoszka, Andrzej (2007).States of Consciousness: Models for Psychology and Psychotherapy. New York: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 20.ISBN978-0-387-32758-7.
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^Sulser F., Vetulani J.:Action of various antidepressant treatments reduces reactivity of noradrenergic cyclic AMP generating system in limbic forebrain, "Nature", 257, 1975.
^Altman, Lawrence K. (22 July 1999)."Ludwik Gross, a Trailblazer in Cancer Research, Dies at 94".New York Times. Retrieved2023-05-03.Dr. Ludwik Gross, who influenced cancer research by showing that viruses could cause cancers in animals, died on Monday at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. He was 94 and lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The cause was stomach cancer, said his daughter, Dr. Augusta H. Gross.
^Stanislaw M. Filipek, Izabella Grzegory, Janusz Lipkowski, Stanislaw Sieniutycz."In Memoriam: Professor Bogdan Baranowski".researchgate.net. Retrieved8 November 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Redgment, P.G. (1995).High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Royal Navy: Development of Anti-U-Boat Equipment, 1941–5, included in: The Applications of Radar and other Electronic Systems in the Royal Navy in World War 2, edited by Kingsley F.A. MacMillan Press, Basingstoke, UK. pp. 229–264.ISBN978-1-85109-732-6.
^Czarnecki, Jacek (2019). "The Rebirth and Progress of the Polish Military During the Interwar Years".Journal of Military History.83 (3).Society for Military History: 747.OCLC473101577.
^On 15 December 1938 the Germans increased the number of rotors from three to five. Only three were still used in the machine at a time, but the number of possible rotor arrangements now jumped from 6 to 60. As a result, 60 sets of perforated sheets would now be needed.Marian Rejewski, "Summary of Our Methods for Reconstructing ENIGMA and Reconstructing Daily Keys...", Appendix C toWładysław Kozaczuk,Enigma, 1984, pp. 242–43.
^Natterer, Frank (2001),"V.3 Kaczmarz's method",The Mathematics of Computerized Tomography, Classics in Applied Mathematics, vol. 32, SIAM, p. 128,ISBN9780898714937.
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^Michał Kokowski, The Science of Science (naukoznawstwo) in Poland: Defending and Removing the Past in the Cold War. As chapter 7 in:Science Studies during the Cold War and Beyond. Paradigms Defected. Edited by Elena Aronova, Simone Turchetti. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. "Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology", pp. 149–176. DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-55943-2_7; here p. 149: "some Polish contributors to science of science (Kazimierz Twardowski,Maria Ossowska,Stanisław Ossowski,Tadeusz Kotarbiński,Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz, Florian Znaniecki,Ludwik Fleck,Stefan Amsterdamski) have gained international recognition."
^Beck A. O pobudliwości różnych miejsc tego samego nerwu. Rozpr. Wydz. mat.-przyr. polsk. Akad. Um. 15: 165-95, 1888.
^Peter Rollberg (2016).Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 705–707.ISBN978-1442268425.
^Wroblewski, Zygmunt Florenty (1882). "Sur la combinaison de l'acide carbonique et de l'eau" [On the combination of carbonic acid and water].Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (in French).94:212–213.
^Gerhard Neidhöfer:Michael von Dolivo-Dobrowolsky und der Drehstrom.Geschichte der Elektrotechnik VDE-Buchreihe, Volume 9, VDE VERLAG, Berlin Offenbach,ISBN978-3-8007-3115-2.
^K. Bielecki (2011). "Professor Ludwik Rydygier father and legend of Polish surgery".Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology.62 (1):125–130.PMID21451218.
^Agnieszka Rec, "Academic Alchemy: TheFundamentum Scienciae Nobilissimae Secretorum Naturae of Adam of Bochyń"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 5, no. 1 (2016): 1-28; "Włodzimierz Hubicki, "Fuitne Olim Alchimia in Academia Cracoviensi Lecta?"Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki 9 (1964): 199–210.
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