Stanley George Wojcicki
( ; born Stanisław Jerzy Wójcicki, ; March 30, 1937) is a
Polish American
Polish Americans ( pl, Polonia amerykańska) are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.8 ...
emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
professor and former chair of the
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...
department at
Stanford University in California, United States.
Early life and education
Wojcicki was born 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 official ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
, the son of
Janina Wanda Wójcicka (née Kozłowska), a bibliographer, and
Franciszek Wójcicki, a lawyer.
[ He and his brother fled from ]Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
to Sweden with his mother at the age of 12, when communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
came to power. They eventually arrived in the United States. His father remained in Poland, and was soon imprisoned for five years for being a member of the government's main opposition party. He was never able to gain a visa to come to the United States.
Wojcicki and his brother were sent to a boarding school run by the Franciscan order near Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
. He excelled in mathematics and had thought of pursuing either engineering or medicine, but decided to study physics. He attended Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
on a scholarship and graduated with an AB. He later attended University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
where he earned a PhD.[Stanford Department of Physics: "Endowed Chairs and Professorships: Stanley G. Wojcicki Chair in Physics: First Endowed Chair in Experimental Physics Honors Beloved Professor"]
retrieved September 22, 2012
Career
Wojcicki worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, the United States Department of Energy. Located in ...
and was a National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
fellow at CERN and the Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ...
. In 1966, he joined the Stanford University physics faculty where he headed the Department of Physics from 1982–1985 and 2004–2007.
Wojcicki has served as an advisor to government funding agencies (US and foreign) as well as to several high energy physics laboratories. He also headed the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel
The High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) is a permanent advisory committee to the United States Department of Energy and the National Academy of Sciences, created in 1967 and organized under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) of 1972.
...
, which advises the United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...
and the National Science Foundation on particle physics matters.
Wojcicki led the HEPAP subpanel New Facilities for the US High-Energy Physics Program which recommended building the Super Conducting Super Collilder in 1983.
Personal life
Stanley Wojcicki is the husband of fellow educator Esther Wojcicki
Esther Denise "Woj" Hochman Wojcicki ( ; born May 26, 1941) is an American journalist, educator, and vice chair of the Creative Commons advisory council. Wojcicki has studied education and technology. She is the founder of the Palo Alto High Scho ...
, whom he met at UC Berkeley. They have three children and nine grandchildren.[Esther Wojcicki]
retrieved September 21, 2012
*Susan Wojcicki
Susan Diane Wojcicki ( ; born July 5, 1968) is a Polish-American business executive who is the CEO of YouTube. Her net worth was estimated at $765 million in 2022.
Wojcicki has worked in the technology industry for over 20 years. She became inv ...
, CEO of YouTube. Google's first office was started in her home.USA Today: "The house that helped build Google" By Jefferson Graham
July 5, 2007
*Janet Wojcicki, assistant professor of pediatrics at UCSF.
*
Anne Wojcicki
Anne E. Wojcicki ( ; born July 28, 1973) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded and serves as CEO of the personal genomics company 23andMe. She founded the company in 2006 with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza to provide the general public access ...
, founder and CEO of the genetic testing company
23andMe
23andMe Holding Co. is a publicly held personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. It is best known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide a saliva sample ...
In 2010, his daughter Anne and her then-husband,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
co-founder
Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (russian: link=no, Сергей Михайлович Брин; born August 21, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist, and internet entrepreneur, who co-founded Google with Larry Page. Brin was ...
, endowed a $2.5 million chair in experimental physics at Stanford in her father's name.
References
External links
Scientific publications of Stanley Wojcickion
INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1970 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wojcicki, Stanley
Living people
21st-century American physicists
People associated with CERN
Polish emigrants to the United States
Harvard University alumni
Stanford University Department of Physics faculty
UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni
1937 births
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Scientists from Buffalo, New York
Winners of the Panofsky Prize
People from Warsaw