Stanley George Wojcicki ( ; born Stanisław Jerzy Wójcicki, ; March 30, 1937 – May 31, 2023) was a Polish-American physicist and former chair of the

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

department at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in California.

Early life and education

Wojcicki was born in

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 ...

, Poland, the son of Janina Wanda Wójcicka (née Kozłowska), a bibliographer, and Franciszek Wójcicki, a lawyer. He and his brother fled from Poland to Sweden with his mother at the age of 12, when

communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

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 The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

near

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

. 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 university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

on a scholarship and graduated with a BA. He later attended the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, 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, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

and was a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

fellow at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

and the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

. In 1966, he joined the

physics faculty where he headed the Department of Physics from 1982–1985 and 2004–2007. Wojcicki 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 Science Foundation, 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 energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

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 was the husband of fellow educator

Esther Wojcicki Esther Denise "Woj" Hochman Wojcicki ( ; born 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 School Media ...

, whom he met at UC Berkeley, and married in 1962. They had three children and ten grandchildren.Esther Wojcicki
retrieved September 21, 2012 *

Susan Wojcicki Susan Diane Wojcicki ( ; July 5, 1968 – August 9, 2024) was an American business executive who was the chief executive officer of YouTube from 2014 to 2023. Her net worth was estimated at $765 million in 2022. Wojcicki worked in the te ...

, former CEO of YouTube. Google's first office was started in her home. *Janet Wojcicki, assistant professor of pediatrics at UCSF. *

Anne Wojcicki Anne E. Wojcicki ( ; born July 28, 1973) is an American entrepreneur. She is known for co-founding the personal genomics company 23andMe. Early life and education Wojcicki was born in Palo Alto, California, the youngest of three sisters: Susan W ...

, founder and CEO of the

genetic testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

company

23andMe 23andMe Holding Co. is an American 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 testing, sali ...

In 2010, his daughter Anne and her then-husband, Google co-founder

Sergey Brin Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (; born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and businessman who co-founded Google with Larry Page. He was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on D ...

, endowed a $2.5 million chair in experimental physics at Stanford in her father's name. Wojcicki was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. Wojcicki died at his residence in

Los Altos, California Los Altos (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Heights") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 31,625 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Most of the city's growth ...

, on May 31, 2023, at the age of 86.

References

External links

Scientific publications of Stanley Wojcicki
on

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 1 ...

AIP Oral History InterviewStan Wojcicki Scientific Symposium, Nov 10, 2023
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wojcicki, Stanley 1937 births 2023 deaths 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 Fellows of the American Physical Society Scientists from Buffalo, New York Winners of the Panofsky Prize Scientists from Warsaw Catholics from California Polish Roman Catholics Wojcicki family