Kazimierz Urbanik (February 5, 1930 – May 29, 2005) was a Polish mathematician and prominent member of the Polish School of Mathematics. He founded the journal '' Probability and Mathematical Statistics'' and served as rector of the

University of Wrocław The University of Wrocław (, UWr; ) is a public research university in Wrocław, Poland. It is the largest institution of higher learning in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, with over 100,000 graduates since 1945, including some 1,900 researcher ...

Early life and education

Urbanik was born in Krzemieniec and studied at the lyceum there. During World War II the town came under Soviet control, and was annexed by Ukraine; after the war, Urbanik's family moved to

Brzeg Brzeg (; Latin: ''Alta Ripa'', German: ''Brieg'', Silesian German: ''Brigg'', , ) is a town in southwestern Poland with 34,778 inhabitants (December 2021) and the capital of Brzeg County. It is situated in Silesia in the Opole Voivodeship on t ...

, which remained Polish. Beginning in 1948, Urbanik studied mathematics and physics at the University of Wrocław, where he was mentored by

Hugo Steinhaus Hugo Dyonizy Steinhaus ( , ; 14 January 1887 – 25 February 1972) was a Polish mathematician and educator. Steinhaus obtained his PhD under David Hilbert at Göttingen University in 1911 and later became a professor at the Jan Kazimierz Univers ...

and Edward Marczewski. He completed a degree in 1952, and began teaching at the university while continuing his studies under Marczewski, researching

general topology In mathematics, general topology (or point set topology) is the branch of topology that deals with the basic set-theoretic definitions and constructions used in topology. It is the foundation of most other branches of topology, including differ ...

measure theory In mathematics, the concept of a measure is a generalization and formalization of geometrical measures (length, area, volume) and other common notions, such as magnitude (mathematics), magnitude, mass, and probability of events. These seemingl ...

, and

probability theory Probability theory or probability calculus is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expre ...

. He completed his doctorate in 1956., and his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in 1957..

Academic career

Urbanik began teaching at the University of Wrocław in 1956. By 1960, he was promoted to professor, and in 1965 he became 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 ...

, becoming its youngest member. He was an

invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians An invitation system is a method of encouraging people to join an organization, such as a Club (organization), club or a website. In regular society, it refers to any system whereby new members are chosen; they cannot simply apply. In relation to w ...

in 1966. He directed the university's Institute of Mathematics for most of the years from 1967 to 1996, and was rector of the university from 1975 to 1981. In 1980, he founded the journal Probability and Mathematical Statistics, and became its first editor-in-chief.

Contributions

His research contributions include over 180 papers. His work in probability theory included work on random variables in

compact group In mathematics, a compact (topological) group is a topological group whose topology realizes it as a compact topological space (when an element of the group is operated on, the result is also within the group). Compact groups are a natural gen ...

s, connections between measurability and connectivity, generalized convolutions, and decomposability semigroups. He also studied

stochastic process In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic () or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables in a probability space, where the index of the family often has the interpretation of time. Sto ...

es,

information theory Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, ...

universal algebra Universal algebra (sometimes called general algebra) is the field of mathematics that studies algebraic structures in general, not specific types of algebraic structures. For instance, rather than considering groups or rings as the object of stud ...

, and

functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (for example, Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics ...

. He was the

doctoral advisor A doctoral advisor (also dissertation director, dissertation advisor; or doctoral supervisor) is a member of a university faculty whose role is to guide graduate students who are candidates for a doctorate, helping them select coursework, as well ...

of 17 students.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urbanik, Kazimierz 20th-century Polish mathematicians University of Wrocław alumni Academic staff of the University of Wrocław Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences 1930 births 2005 deaths Polish statisticians Probability theorists