Prof Witold Nowacki H

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

PPAS (1911–1986) was a Polish mathematician and expert on the mechanics of elasticity and thermoelasticity. He served as President of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

from 1978 to 1980 and was the first President of the Society of the Interaction of Mathematics and Mechanics.

Life

He was born in Zakrzewo in

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 ...

on 20 July 1911, the son of Ludwik Nowacki and his wife, Bronislawa Czyzewska. He studied at

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

Polytechnic graduating in 1934. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he served as an officer in the Polish Army but was captured in 1939 and spent the entire war as a German

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

. In 1945 he was accepted as a Professor at

Gdańsk University of Technology The Gdańsk University of Technology (Gdańsk Tech, former ''GUT''; pl, Politechnika Gdańska) is a technical university in the Wrzeszcz borough of Gdańsk, and one of the oldest universities in Poland. It has eight faculties and with 41 fi ...

lecturing in the Strength of Materials. In 1952 he transferred to Warsaw Polytechnic lecturing in Building Mechanics and from 1955 taught Elasticity and Plasticity at

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. In 1979 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. Nowacki retired in 1980.

Personal life

In 1936, Nowacki married Janina Sztabianka. On 23 August 1986, Nowacki died in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Poland.

Publications

*''Thermoelasticity'' (1962) *''Dynamics of Elastic Systems'' (1963) *''Theory of Micropolar Elasticity'' (1970) *''Trends in Elasticity and Thermoelasticity'' (1971) *''Autobiographical Notes'' (1985) *''Theory of Asymmetric Elasticity'' (1986)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nowacki, Witold 1911 births 1986 deaths Polish mathematicians Polish non-fiction writers Polish male non-fiction writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta University of Warsaw faculty Burials at Powązki Cemetery Presidents of the Polish Academy of Sciences Prisoners of Oflag II-C