Tadeusz Julian Banachiewicz (13 February 1882,

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

– 17 November 1954,

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

) was a Polish

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and geodesist.

Scientific career

Banachiewicz was educated at

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

and his thesis was on "reduction constants of the Repsold heliometer". In 1905, after the closure of the University by the Russians, he moved to

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

and in 1906 to the

Pulkovo Observatory The Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory (), officially named the Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences at Pulkovo, is the principal astronomical observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is located 19 km south ...

. He also worked at the Engelhardt Observatory at

Kazan University Kazan Federal University (; ) is a public research university located in Kazan, Russia. The university was founded in 1804 as Imperial Kazan University, which makes it the second oldest continuously existing tertiary education institution in Rus ...

from 1910 to 1915.The Observatory in the years of T. Banachiewicz's management (1919-1954)
Krakow Astronomical Observatory, Retrieved 10 February 2010 In 1919, after Poland regained its independence, Banachiewicz moved to

, becoming a professor at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

and the director of Kraków Observatory (). A major contribution was a modified method of determining parabolic orbits. In 1925, he invented a theory of " cracovians" – a special kind of matrix algebra – which brought him international recognition. This theory solved several astronomical, geodetic, mechanical and mathematical problems. In 1922 he became a member of

Polish Academy of Learning The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences or Polish Academy of Learning (, PAU), headquartered in Kraków and founded in 1872, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland having the nature of an academy of sciences (the other being the Po ...

and from 1932 to 1938 was the vice-president of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

. He was also the first President of the

Polish Astronomical Society The Polish Astronomical Society (Polish: ''Polskie Towarzystwo Astronomiczne, PTA'') is science society in Poland, founded in 1923, with headquarters in Warsaw. Members of PTA are professional astronomers. Purpose of the association is promoting ...

, the vice-president of the Geodetic Committee of The Baltic States and, from 1952 to his death, 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 ...

. He was also the founder of the journal

Acta Astronomica ''Acta Astronomica'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering astronomy and astrophysics. It was established in 1925 by the Polish astronomer Tadeusz Banachiewicz. Initially, the journal published articles in Latin, later Englis ...

. He was the recipient of Doctor Honoris Causa titles from the

(1929), the

University of Poznań A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

(1936) and the

Sofia University Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" () is a public university, public research university in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria. Founded on 1 October 1888, the edifice of the university was constr ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

(1948). Banachiewicz invented a chronocinematograph, an

astronomical instrument An astronomical instrument is a device for observing, measuring or recording astronomical data. They are used in the scientific field of astronomy, a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos, with t ...

for precise observations of

solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...

s. He published more than 500 scientific papers, scientific and popular press communications, telegraph scientific reports, polemics, reviews, reports and editorial works, dealing with astronomy, mathematics, mechanics, geodesy, geophysics and other fields of science. The

LU decomposition In numerical analysis and linear algebra, lower–upper (LU) decomposition or factorization factors a matrix as the product of a lower triangular matrix and an upper triangular matrix (see matrix multiplication and matrix decomposition). The produ ...

was introduced by Banachiewicz in 1938.

Honors

The lunar crater Banachiewicz and the main-belt asteroid 1286 Banachiewicza are named after him. The asteroid 1287 Lorcia was named after his wife following his suggestion to the discoverer.

References

External links

* Adam Strzałkowski
Tadeusz Banachiewicz – Mistrz i Nauczyciel
Zwoje 4/41, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Banachiewicz, Tadeusz 1882 births 1954 deaths Academic staff of Jagiellonian University Members of the Polish Academy of Learning Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences 20th-century Polish astronomers Polish geodesists 20th-century Polish mathematicians Scientists from Warsaw