POLISH CHEMISTS

Marie Skłodowska Curie

(7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934)Maria Salomea Skłodowska was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes.

She was born in Warsaw, in what was then the Kingdom of Poland, part of the Russian Empire. She studied at Warsaw's clandestine Floating University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her older sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and with physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at a sanatorium in Sancellemoz (Haute-Savoie), France, due to aplastic anemia brought on by exposure to radiation while carrying test tubes of radium in her pockets during research,

JĘDRZEJ ŚNIADECKI

(30 November 1768 – 12 May 1838) Was a Polish writer, physician, chemist and biologist. His achievements include the creation of modern Polish terminology in the field of chemistry.

Śniadecki was born in Żnin in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After completing his university studies, he was chosen to be the first professor of medicine and chemistry at the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's "Main School," which in 1803 was renamed the Imperial University of Vilna. Śniadecki was also one of the main organizers and head of the recently created Wilno Medical-Surgical Academy. From 1806-36 he headed the local Medical Scientific Society, one of the premier scientific societies in the region.

In 1807, Śniadecki announced he had discovered a new metal in platinum and called it "vestium". Three years later, Académie de France published a note saying that the experiment could not be reproduced. Discouraged by this, Śniadecki dropped all his claims and did not talk about vestium anymore. Nevertheless, there have been speculations that this new element was ruthenium, found 37 years later by Karl Klaus. However, they are not accepted by modern sources.

He died in Vilnius and is buried at the Rasos Cemetery.

KAROL OLSZEWSKI(29 January 1846 – 24 March 1915)

Was a Polish chemist, mathematician and physicist.Olszewski was a graduate of Kazimierz Brodziński High School in Tarnów. He born in Cracow, and studied at Cracow’s Jagiellonian University in the departments of mathematics and physics, and chemistry and biology. He carried out his first experiments using a personally improved compressor, compressing and condensing carbon dioxide.

In 1884, in his Cracow laboratory, Olszewski was the first to liquefy hydrogen in a dynamic state, achieving a record low temperature of −225 °C (48 K). In 1895 he liquefied argon. He failed only to liquefy then-newly discovered helium.

In 1896, on hearing of Wilhelm Röntgen's work with X-rays, within a few days in early February Olszewski replicated it, thus initiating the university's department of radiology.

Wróblewski was born in Grodno (Russian Empire, now in Belarus). He studied at Kiev University. After a six-

year exile for participating in the January 1863 Uprising against Imperial Russia, he studied in Berlin

and Heidelberg. He defended his doctoral dissertation at Munich University in 1876 and became an assistant professor at Strassburg University. In 1880 he became

a member of the Polish Academy of Learning.

KAROL WRÓBLEWSKI(28 October 1845 – 16 April 1888)

Was a Polish physicist and chemist.

While studying carbonic acid, Wróblewski discovered the CO2 hydrate. He reported this finding in 1882.

On 29 March 1883 Wróblewski and Olszewski used a new method of condensing oxygen, and on 13 April the same year—nitrogen

In 1888, while studying the physical properties of hydrogen, Wróblewski upset a kerosene lamp and was severely burned. He died soon after at a Cracow hospital.

KAROL OLSZEWSKI&ZYGM

UNT W

RÓBLEWSKI

Inscription in Polish and Latin:"In this buildingKarol Olszewski [and]Zygmunt Wróblewskiprofessors at Jagiellonian Universityin 1883for the first time in the world liquifedcomponents of airthereby opening to science and industrynew fields of research and application"

Alina Surmacka Szczesniak (July 8, 1925 – July 23, 2016)

Was a Polish-born American food scientist best known for her contributions to food texture.

Szcześniak earned her graduate degree in food technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then worked for General Foods in the field of food chemistry, focusing on texture studies. She worked at General Foods from 1952 until her 1986 retirement, where she retired as a principal scientist.

In 1985, Szcześniak became the first woman to receive the Nicholas Appert Award, the highest honor bestowed upon its members by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). It commended her pioneering work on food texture that led to its recognition as an important quality attribute affecting consumer acceptance and to its organization as a subdiscipline of food science. She is the only woman thus far to ever win the Nicholas Appert Award. Dr Szcześniak was elected an IFT Fellow in 1981.

Filip Neriusz Walter

(31 May 1810 – 9 April 1847)Was a Polish chemist and pioneer of organic chemistry.

In 1831, aged 21, he was named professor of chemistry at the Jagiellonian University, but was granted a leave of absence and went to Germany and France to become acquainted with applied chemistry.In France he collaborated with the famous chemists, Jean Dumas and Pierre-Joseph Pelletier.

His achievements won him recognition from the French Academy.In sum, he isolated and studied 24 new chemical compounds, including toluene, biphenyl, nitrotoluene, cedrene, potassium hydroxide dihydrate, chromyl chloride, kumen, biphenyl, benzyl chloride, benzyl bromide, nitrotoluene, and menthene.

In 1957 he obtained a master's degree in chemical engineering at the Faculty of Chemistry, Technical University of Lodz. In 1955 he started working at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the Technical University in cooperation with Professor Edward Józefowicz. In 1965 he was awarded a doctoral degree. In the academic year 1969/1970 he worked at Oxford University with Professor Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin – a Nobel Prize Laureate. In the same year he was nominated as the "Member of Oxford University" and a member of Linacre College. He was a student of Prof. Zdzisław Gałdecki. From 1982 to 1984 he worked at the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University in the United States. In 1986 he obtained his PhD, in 1997 he was awarded the title of professor, and full professor in 2001.

A specialist in crystal chemistry and X-ray structural analysis. His achievements include 80 publications. He has promoted 4 doctors.

In the years 1990-1993 he was vice dean, and in 1993-1999 head of doctoral studies of the Faculty of Chemistry at Technical University of Lodz. In the years 1997-2000 he was President of Crystal Chemistry Division of the Chemical Society.

Tadeusz Bartczak(born 28 July 1935 in Warsaw)

Is a Polish chemist, professor at Lodz University of Technology.