The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered 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 ...

, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars and a network of research institutes. It was established in 1951, during the early period of the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...

following

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

History

The Polish Academy of Sciences is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning, headquartered in

, that was established by the merger of earlier science societies, including the Polish Academy of Learning (''Polska Akademia Umiejętności'', abbreviated ''PAU''), with its seat in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

, and the

Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning The Warsaw Society of Friends of Science ( pl, Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, ''TPN'') was one of the earliest Polish scientific societies, active in Warsaw from 1800 to 1832. Name The Society was also known as ''Warszawskie Królewskie Towarzyst ...

(Science), which had been founded in the late 18th century. The Polish Academy of Sciences functions as a learned society acting through an elected assembly of leading scholars and research institutions. The Academy has also, operating through its committees, become a major scientific advisory body. Another aspect of the Academy is its coordination and overseeing of numerous (several dozen) research institutes. PAN institutes employ over 2,000 people and are funded by about a third of the Polish government's budget for science.Ustawa z dnia 30 kwietnia 2010 r. o Polskiej Akademii Nauk.

Leadership

The Polish Academy of Sciences is led by a President, elected by the assembly of Academy members for a four-year term, together with a number of Vice Presidents. The President for the 2019–2022 term was Prof. Jerzy Duszyński (his second term in the post), together with five Vice Presidents: Prof. Stanisław Czuczwar, Prof. Stanisław Filipowicz, Prof. Paweł Rowiński, Prof.

Roman Słowiński Roman Słowiński (born 16 March 1952) is a Polish computer scientist and professor. Since 2019 he has been Vice President of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is a Professor and Founding Chair of thLaboratory of Intelligent Decision Support ...

, and Prof. Romuald Zabielski. On 20 October 2022, General Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences elected Prof. Marek Konarzewski to become the new President of the Academy for the 2023–2026 term. All the Presidents of the Polish Academy of Sciences to date, by term, are as follows: *1952–1956:

Jan Bohdan Dembowski Jan Bohdan Dembowski (26 December 1889 – 22 September 1963) was a Polish biologist and academic who was the first President of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Biography Dembowski was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia and studied in the Sa ...

*1957–1962: Tadeusz Kotarbiński *1962–1971: Janusz Groszkowski *1971–1977: Włodzimierz Trzebiatowski *1977–1980: Witold Nowacki *1980–1983: Aleksander Gieysztor *1984–1990: Jan Karol Kostrzewski *1990–1992: Aleksander Gieysztor *1993–1998: Leszek Kuźnicki *1999–2001: Mirosław Mossakowski *2002–2003: Jerzy Kołodziejczak *2003–2006: Andrzej Legocki *2007–2014: Michał Kleiber *2015–2018: Jerzy Duszyński *2019–2022: Jerzy Duszyński *2023–2026: (president-elect) Marek Konarzewski

Institutes

Gdańsk Library of Polish Academy of Sciences 2015 001

The Polish Academy of Sciences has numerous institutes, including: * Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy * Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology * Bohdan Dobrzański Institute of Agrophysics * Museum and Institute of Zoology * Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition * Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences * Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences - established, 1954, became an independent institute in 1974; publishes the journal ''Pharmacological Reports''. * Institute of Psychology *

Institute of High Pressure Physics Institute of High Pressure Physics, also known as Unipress (Polish: ''Instytut Wysokich Ciśnień Polskiej Akademii Nauk'') is a scientific institute founded in 1972 by the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). Main fields of activity * Biological ...

* Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center * * * Polish Institute of Physical Chemistry * Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences in Lodz * Department of Turbine Dynamics and Diagnostics of the Institute of Fluid-flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Sciences * Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences * * Institute of Theoretical and Applied Informatics, Polish Academy of Sciences * Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences * Institute of Economics of the Polish Academy of Sciences * Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Notable members

* Franciszek Bujak, historian * Tomasz Dietl, physicist * Aleksandra Dunin-Wąsowicz, archaeologist *

Zofia Hilczer-Kurnatowska Zofia Hilczer-Kurnatowska (1932 – 11 August 2013) was a Polish archaeologist. In 1982, Hilczer-Kurnatowska received the title of professor of humanities. Her main area of research was the archeology of Early Middle Ages. She was a member of the ...

, archaeologist *

Maria Janion Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...

, scholar, critic and theoretician of literature * Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, paleontologist * Franciszek Kokot, nephrologist * Stanisław Konturek, physician *

Leszek Kołakowski Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history, ''Main Currents of Marxism'' (1976). ...

, philosopher * Roman Kozłowski, paleontologist *

Jacek Leociak Jacek Leociak (born 2 June 1957, in Warsaw) is a Polish literary scholar and historian as well as author. He is a professor of humanities and an employee of the Institute of Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Cen ...

, literary scholar * Wanda Leopold, author, translator, and literature critic * Mieczysław Mąkosza, chemist * Zenon Mariak, neurosurgeon, professor * Karol Myśliwiec, archeologist * Witold Nowacki, mathematician (president of the Academy 1978 to 1980) * Czesław Olech, mathematician * Bohdan Paczyński, astrophysicist * Włodzimierz Ptak, immunologist * Marianna Sankiewicz-Budzyńska electronics engineer and academic * Andrzej Schinzel, mathematician *

Jan Strelau Jan Strelau (born 30 May 1931 in Gdańsk; died 4 August 2020 in Warsaw) was a Polish psychologist best known for his studies on temperament. He was professor of psychology at Warsaw University from 1968 to 2001 and was since 2001 professor at Wa ...

, psychologist *

Piotr Sztompka Piotr Sztompka (born 2 March 1944, in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish sociologist known for his work on the theory of social trust. He is professor of sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, and has also frequently served a ...

, sociologist *

Joanna Tokarska-Bakir Joanna Sabina Tokarska-Bakir (born 1958) is a Polish cultural anthropologist, literary scholar, and religious studies scholar. She is a full professor and chair of the ethnic and national relations study at the Polish Academy of Sciences's Instit ...

, anthropologist and religious studies scholar *

Andrzej Trautman Andrzej Mariusz Trautman (born January 4, 1933 in Warsaw) is a Polish mathematical physicist who has made contributions to classical gravitation in general and to general relativity in particular. He made contributions to gravitation as early ...

, physicist * Andrzej Udalski, astrophysicist and astronomer *

Jerzy Vetulani Jerzy Adam Gracjan Vetulani (; 21 January 1936 – 6 April 2017) was a Polish neuroscientist, pharmacologist and biochemist, professor of natural sciences, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Learning, one of the mos ...

, pharmacologist and neuroscientist * Jan Woleński, philosopher *

Aleksander Wolszczan Aleksander Wolszczan (born 29 April 1946) is a Polish astronomer. He is the co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets and pulsar planets. Early life and education Wolszczan was born on 29 April 1946 in Szczecinek located in pre ...

, astronomer * Bernard Zabłocki, microbiologist and immunologist * Stanisław Zagaja, pomologist, professor and director of Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture

Foreign members

* Aage Bohr, physicist * Zbyszek Darzynkiewicz, cell biologist *

Joseph H. Eberly Joseph Henry Eberly is the Professor of Physics and Professor of Optics at the University of Rochester. Education Eberly earned his bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1957 and his Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University in ...

, physicist * Erol Gelenbe, computer scientist and engineer * Martin Hairer, mathematician * Jack K. Hale, mathematician * Stephen T. Holgate, immunopharmacologist (2001) *

Ernst Håkon Jahr Ernst Håkon Jahr (born 4 March 1948) is a Norwegian linguist with about 230 publications, including about 50 books. He is currently (2012) dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of Agder. He was born in Oslo, and to ...

, linguist * Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Polish chemist working at Carnegie Mellon University *

Karl Alexander Müller Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austrian ...

, physicist * Roger Penrose, mathematician *

Carlo Rubbia Carlo Rubbia (born 31 March 1934) is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN. Early life and educatio ...

, physicist * Peter M. Simons, philosopher * Boleslaw Szymanski, computer scientist * Chen Ning Yang, physicist *

George Zarnecki George Jerzy Zarnecki (Polish: Jerzy Żarnecki), CBE, FBA, FSA (12 September 1915 – 8 September 2008) was a Polish Professor of the History of Art. He was a scholar of Medieval art and English Romanesque sculpture, an area of study in which h ...

, art historian

Periodicals

*'' Acta Arithmetica'' *''

Acta Ornithologica ''Acta Ornithologica'' is an ornithological scientific periodical published in Poland (two issues per year) by the Polish Academy of Sciences. It is in English with summaries in Polish. It was established in 1933 as ''Acta Ornithologica Musei Z ...

'' *'' Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' *''

Acta Physica Polonica ''Acta Physica Polonica'' is an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in physics. It was established by the Polish Physical Society in 1920. In 1970 is split into two journals ''Acta Physica Polonica A'' and ''Acta Ph ...

'' *''

Annales Zoologici ''Annales Zoologici'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of systematic zoology. Established in 1951, it is published by the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy o ...

'' *'' Archaeologia Polona'' *'' Fundamenta Mathematicae''

References

External links

PAN website
(click on British flag icon for English-language content) {{Authority control National academies of sciences National academies of arts and humanities 1952 establishments in Poland Educational institutions established in 1952 Scientific organizations established in 1952 Members of the International Council for Science Members of the International Science Council