Henryk Niewodniczański (1900–1968) was a Polish

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

, professor at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

and the creator and director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. Niewodniczański graduated from the

Stefan Batory University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

Wilno Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

(

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

) in 1924 and in 1926 received his PhD from the same university. In 1927, he was awarded a fellowship at

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

. At that time his main field of interest was optics of metals and molecular optics. By studying the influence of the magnetic field on the fluorescence of mercury vapour he discovered magnetic dipole radiation. In 1934, as a fellow of

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

, Niewodniczański worked in the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Mond Laboratory Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) is a hypothesis that proposes a modification of Newton's law of universal gravitation to account for observed properties of galaxies. It is an alternative to the hypothesis of dark matter in terms of explaining ...

and in the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. On his return to Poland in 1937, Niewodniczański worked first at the

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań The Adam Mickiewicz University ( pl, Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu; Latin: ''Universitas Studiorum Mickiewicziana Posnaniensis'') is a research university in Poznań, Poland. It traces its origins to 1611, when under the Royal Ch ...

and later in Wilno where he was the

Chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

of Experimental Physics at the Stefan Batory University. After the war he obtained the Chair of Experimental Physics at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. His interest in

atomic optics Atom optics (or atomic optics) is the area of physics which deals with beams of cold, slowly moving neutral atoms, as a special case of a particle beam. Like an optical beam, the atomic beam may exhibit diffraction and Interference (wave propagation ...

and

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

led him to a flourishing development of these branches of physics in Kraków. Niewodniczański was also an excellent organizer. In 1955 he created the Institute of Nuclear Physics, with a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

-made U-120

cyclotron A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. Lawrence, Ernest O. ''Method and apparatus for the acceleration of ions'', filed: Janu ...

as the main research tool. As the director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics and of the Institute of Physics of the Jagiellonian University, Niewodniczański was the initiator of the majority of the research carried out in these two institutes. He assembled a group of young scientists who, undaunted by difficult conditions, built with him the necessary equipment and under his inspiration began research works. In 1988, twenty years after his death, the Institute of Nuclear Physics he created was renamed ''The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics''.

References

Biography at the Institute of Nuclear Physics website

* ''Henryk Niewodniczański'' entry in

External links

The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics
in Kraków {{DEFAULTSORT:Niewodniczanski, Henryk 20th-century Polish physicists Scientists from Vilnius Vilnius University alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Cambridge Academic staff of Vilnius University Academic staff of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Academic staff of Jagiellonian University 1900 births 1968 deaths

See also

References

External links