Wincenty Okołowicz (26 June 1906 – 3 September 1979) was a Polish geographer and an expert in

geomorphology Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or ...

and

climatology Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of stu ...

. He is best known as the author of the 1965 major Polish classification of world's

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

s, ''Climatic Zones of the World'' ( pl, Strefy klimatyczne świata).

Early life

Okołowicz was born in a small village of Boków, near

Pidhaitsi Pidhaitsi ( uk, Підгайці, Pidhajci, pl, Podhajce, yi, פּידײַיִץ, Podhaitza) is a small city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is located ''ca.'' 15.5 mi south of Berezhany, 43.5 mi from Ternopi ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

Career

In 1945, he became one of the first employees of the newly formed Department of Geography, at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in

Toruń )'' , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg , image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg , nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town , pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pom ...

. He became a professor 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 1952. From 1953 to 1959, he was the director of the State Hydrological and Meteorological Institute ( pl, Państwowy Instytut Hydrologiczno-Meteorologiczny). From 1956 to 1959, he was a vice-chairman 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 o ...

's Commission for the "International Geophysical Year ( pl, Międzynarodowego Roku Geofizycznego). He is the author of a map of climatic spheres (1965) as well as the first Polish textbook for climatology (''Klimatologia ogólna'', 1969). Okołowicz died September 3, 1979 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 officiall ...

References

1906 births 1979 deaths Academic staff of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń Polish climatologists Polish geographers Polish geomorphologists 20th-century geographers {{Poland-scientist-stub