Zdzislaw I. Pawlak (10 November 1926 – 7 April 2006) was a Polish mathematician and

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

. He was affiliated with several organization, including the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, 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 distinguished scholars a ...

and the Warsaw School of Information Technology. He served as the director of the Institute of Computer Science at the

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology () is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors (including 145 titular professors). The student body ...

(1989–96). Pawlak was known for his contribution to many branches of

theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science is a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the Abstraction, abstract and mathematical foundations of computation. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Associati ...

. He is credited with introducing the

rough set theory In computer science, a rough set, first described by Polish computer scientist Zdzisław I. Pawlak, is a formal approximation of a crisp set (i.e., conventional set) in terms of a pair of sets which give the ''lower'' and the ''upper'' approximat ...

and also known for his fundamental works on it. He also introduced the Pawlak flow graphs, a graphical framework for reasoning from data. He was conferred with

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

in 1999. He was also a full member of

Education and career

Zdzislaw Pawlak was born on 10 November 1926 in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. He graduated from a public elementary school in 1939. In 1946 he passed his Baccalaureate Diploma examination, and in 1947 he began studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the

Łódź University of Technology Łódź University of Technology () was created in 1945 and has developed into one of the biggest technical universities in Poland. Originally located in an old factory building, today it covers nearly 200,000 sq. meters in over 70 separate bu ...

. Two years later, he moved to the Faculty of Telecommunications at the

. He received his M.Sc. degree in Telecommunications in 1951, after which he worked in the Institute of Mathematics of the

until 1957.

References

External links

*
The International Rough Set Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pawlak, Zdzislaw 1926 births 2006 deaths Polish computer scientists Polish mathematicians Scientists from Łódź Warsaw University of Technology alumni Academic staff of the Warsaw University of Technology Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Łódź University of Technology alumni