Zdzisław Szymański

Zdzisław Szymański was born on February 2, 1926, in Czarne near Włocławek, Poland. In 1950 he graduated from the Lodz (Łódź) Institute of Technology obtaining his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering. In 1953 he also graduated from the Warsaw University obtaining a second M.Sc. degree in Physics. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics in 1956 from the Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His thesis work concerned the dynamics of Knudsen's gas.

During his professional career he worked at several institutions: the Lodz Institute of Technology, Warsaw Institute of Technology, Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Nuclear Research, and Warsaw University. In 1973 he was elected the Corresponding Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and in 1986 — the Full Member. In 1989 the Polish Physical Society awarded him its highest award — the Marian Smoluchowski Medal.

In 1956 Zdzisław started his great adventure with Nuclear Physics. Actually, 'adventure' is the word that best describes Zdzisław's understanding of scientific research. He was an enthusiast, fascinated with his work, the work which was the essence of his life, and which he treated as an intellectual adventure.

From the very beginning of his career he participated in building foundations of modern Nuclear Structure Theory, and he contributed a lot to this scientific endeavor. But his even bigger contribution was to educate the whole community of Polish nuclear physicists. He can be certainly called the Father of Polish school of Nuclear Structure Physics. He had an enormous knowledge and rare pedagogical talents. He was an open, straightforward and kind man, quick to establish relationships. These traits made him well known, valued and liked by nuclear physicists all over the world.

He died suddenly, on September 5, 1999, during the Nuclear Physics Summer School in Krzyże, Poland. He died at his post, carrying on his mission to the very end.

On February 6-10, 2001, we organized in Warsaw a scientific conference on High Spin Physics 2001, which was dedicated to the memory of Zdzisław. Proceedings of the conference were published in a special issue of Acta Physica Polonica 32 No. 9 of September 2001. They contain numerous scientific papers that present the breadth of the field to which Zdzisław Szymański contributed so much. The printed volume also includes several articles about Zdzisław written by his friends and collaborators. Herein, we make available the article by S.G. Rohoziński on the life, personality, and scientific achievements of Zdzisław Szymański.