Not Only Nicolaus Copernicus

In 1364, King Kazimierz III Wielki (Casimir III the Great) founded in Cracow the second oldest university in Central Europe (the first one being that of Prague).

Nicolaus Copernicus was one of the first famous students of the Cracovian Academy.

Copernicus was a real Renaissance man: he was not only an outstanding astronomer but also a mathematician, economist and doctor; he showed much practical interest in his country’s political and economic life. His greatest achievements, however, are connected with astronomy; he got interested in the subject during his studies in Cracow.

After years of research and observations, Copernicus formulated his heliocentric theory of the universe. The full outline of his theory was given in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) published in 1543, a year after his death. Copernicus’ theory altered the course of astronomy by proposing that the earth moves around the sun. At the same time, it brought about a great methodological change in sciences and worldwide revolution in thinking.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie

Distinguished Polish scientist, Maria Skłodowska-Curie was granted the Nobel prize twice, for physics and for chemistry. She started her scientific career in Warsaw, emigrated and spent the rest of her life in France, where she married Pierre Curie. Working together, they built up the science of radioactivity and published pioneer works on nuclear physics and chemistry.

In 1898, they discovered polonium and radium and five years later received the Nobel prize for physics.

Since 1906, Maria Skłodowska-Curie headed (after her husband’s death) the chair of radioactivity at the Sorbonne in Paris.

In later years, she organised the Radium Institute in Paris, also helping in the establishment of a similar centre in Warsaw.

The Nobel prize for chemistry was granted to her in 1911, in recognition for her research works on the properties of radioactive elements.

Other Polish researchers also contributed greatly to the European science. For example, Stefan Banach – cofounder of functional analysis and linear spaces, Hugo Steinhaus – specialising in the theory of probability, Stefan Bryła (bridge constructor), Tadeusz Kotarbiński (praxeology) Kazimierz Nitsch (founder of dialectology).

Nowadays, scientific discoveries are usually a result of collective research and effort, and they are made in spacious, modern, well-equipped laboratories or industrial establishment employing many scientists. Polish researchers are among them.