Alfred Jahn (22 April 1915,

Kleparów Klepariv (, , ), is a suburb of Lviv in Ukraine. The Yanivsky cemetery in Klepariv was founded in 1883. Klepariv has a railway station.

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

(L'viv) – 1 April 1999,

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

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

geomorphologist Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand why ...

polar explorer This list is for recognised pioneering explorers of the polar regions. It does not include subsequent travelers and expeditions. Polar explorers * Jameson Adams * Mark Agnew * Stian Aker * Valerian Albanov * Roald Amundsen * Salomon August ...

and

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Wrocław University 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 ...

Biography

He was born on 22 April 1915 in

Kleparów Klepariv (, , ), is a suburb of Lviv in Ukraine. The Yanivsky cemetery in Klepariv was founded in 1883. Klepariv has a railway station.

, near

(L'viv). He obtained a Masters of Science degree at the

Jan Kazimierz 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 higher ...

in Lwów in 1937. In the same year he took part in the First Polish West Greenland Expedition, organized by

Aleksander Kosiba Aleksander Kosiba (born 18 January 1901 in Libusza — died 18 September 1981 in Wrocław) was a Polish geographer, geophysicist, glaciologist and climatologist. Kosiba's undergraduate tertiary studies were at the then Jan Kazimierz University. ...

, which provided him with enough material for his PhD dissertation. Completed in 1939, it had the title "Investigations on the structure and temperature of soils in West Greenland". Jahn survived the

Nazi occupation of Poland Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...

by working as a feeder of lice at

Rudolf Weigl Rudolf Stefan Jan Weigl (2 September 1883 – 11 August 1957) was a Polish biologist, physician and inventor, known for creating the first effective vaccine against epidemic typhus. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine each year betwe ...

's typhus research institute in Lwów. After the war he first worked in

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 ...

, at the

Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (MCSU) (, UMCS) is a public research university, in Lublin, Poland. It is named in honour of Marie Curie-Sklodowska. The University was founded on October 23, 1944, by the Lublin Committee during the Second W ...

, and then in the reconstituted Wrocław University (which included a large number of the faculty from Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów who survived the war). In the 1950s he resumed his polar studies, participating in expeditions to

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...

and the Polish Polar Station in Hornsund. He also conducted research in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

and other parts of

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

which made him one of the foremost polar geomorphologists in the world. He was made president (rector) of Wrocław University in 1962. In 1953 and 1980 Alfred Jahn published various works on the Polish part of the Sudetes Mountains emphasizing the role of climate in shaping the mountains. In 1968, as a rector of Wrocław University, he made the decision to support the

student strikes A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school ...

against Communist censorship. As a result, he lost his job. Likewise, during the

martial law in Poland Martial law in Poland () existed between 13 December 1981 and 22 July 1983. The Polish United Workers' Party, government of the Polish People's Republic drastically restricted everyday life by introducing martial law and a military junta in an a ...

in 1982, he spoke out against the policies of the Jaruzelski government and was consequently removed by the authorities from his position as chair of the Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1972 he founded the Polar Club of the Geographical Society of Poland and served as its first president until 1982. Jahn retired in the 1990s but remained scholarly active until his death on 1 April 1999 in

. Alfred Jahn was a member 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 ...

, of

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

, and the German Akademie Leopoldina. He published his memoirs, "Z Kleparowa w świat szeroki" (''From Kleparow into the big wide world''), in 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jahn, Alfred Polish geographers 1915 births 1999 deaths Scientists from Lviv People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Polish Austro-Hungarians Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters University of Lviv alumni Victims of post–World War II forced migrations Polish geomorphologists Polish explorers Polar explorers Academic staff of the University of Wrocław 20th-century Polish geographers