Stanislaw Tołpa (3 November 1901, Ruda Łańcucka – 11 October 1996,

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

) was a Polish

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He has developed a method of

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

preparation called by his name. Tołpa, born into a poor peasant family in eastern Poland, graduated

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

, then studied

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

Lwów University The Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (named after Ivan Franko, ) is a state-sponsored university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since 1940 the university is named after Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko. The university is the oldest institution of highe ...

where he completed a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

peatlands A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of Soil organic matter, organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat. Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, du ...

Chornohora Chornohora () is the highest mountain range in Ukraine, Western Ukraine. It is within the Polonynian Beskids, a subgroup of the mountain group of Eastern Beskids of the Outer Eastern Carpathians, Eastern Beskids, which in turn is part of the Oute ...

. He worked as a

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

teacher in a high school in

Kalisz Kalisz () is a city in central Poland, and the second-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, with 97,905 residents (December 2021). It is the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of Gr ...

until 1939. In 1945 he went to

. Initially, he was

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

of the Faculty of Agriculture at Wroclaw University and Wroclaw University of Technology. Later he created a separate College of Agriculture and became its rector. He habilitated and received the title of professor. His entire research career was devoted to

. Under his leadership, marshes and peat bogs have been studied in the

Biebrza The Biebrza (, ', ') is a river in northeastern Poland, a tributary of the Narew River (near Wizna), with a length of and a basin area of 7,092 km2 (7,067 in Poland).Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, and in the

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

region. He has developed a classification of European peats. Over time, his interests shifted from the history and morphology of the peat to chemical and biological properties of its components. He detected compounds with specific biological activity. Johnson and Johnson eventually bought his life work. His only child inherited his wealth. She currently resides in Poland. Based on his research in the 1960 a peat preparation made him famous, used in patients with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

. He was one of the founders of the Wroclaw branch of 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 ...

. His research also contributed to the protection of peat deposits in

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 ...

. After his retirement in 1971, he continued research within his laboratory of Biology and Biochemistry of Peat at Agricultural University in Wrocław. Patent for the manufacture of the preparation was ceded to the university. He died at the age of 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolpa, Stanislaw 20th-century Polish botanists People from Leżajsk County Scientists from Wrocław 1901 births 1996 deaths Polish people of World War II Multiple sclerosis researchers