Prof Witold Nowacki H
FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This so ...
PPAS (1911–1986) was a Polish mathematician and expert on the mechanics of elasticity and thermoelasticity. He served as President of the
Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, 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 ...
from 1978 to 1980 and was the first President of the Society of the Interaction of Mathematics and Mechanics.
Life

He was born in
Zakrzewo in
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 ...
on 20 July 1911, the son of Ludwik Nowacki and his wife, Bronislawa Czyzewska.
He studied at
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
Polytechnic graduating in 1934.
In the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
he served as an officer in the Polish Army but was captured in 1939 and spent the entire war as a German
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of ...
. In 1945 he was accepted as a Professor at
Gdańsk University of Technology
The Gdańsk University of Technology (Gdańsk Tech, former ''GUT''; pl, Politechnika Gdańska) is a technical university in the Wrzeszcz borough of Gdańsk, and one of the oldest universities in Poland. It has eight faculties and with 41 fi ...
lecturing in the Strength of Materials. In 1952 he transferred to Warsaw Polytechnic lecturing in Building Mechanics and from 1955 taught Elasticity and Plasticity at
Warsaw University
The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...
. In 1979 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
.
Nowacki retired in 1980.
Personal life
In 1936, Nowacki married Janina Sztabianka.
On 23 August 1986, Nowacki died 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.
Publications
*''Thermoelasticity'' (1962)
*''Dynamics of Elastic Systems'' (1963)
*''Theory of Micropolar Elasticity'' (1970)
*''Trends in Elasticity and Thermoelasticity'' (1971)
*''Autobiographical Notes'' (1985)
*''Theory of Asymmetric Elasticity'' (1986)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nowacki, Witold
1911 births
1986 deaths
Polish mathematicians
Polish non-fiction writers
Polish male non-fiction writers
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta
University of Warsaw faculty
Burials at Powązki Cemetery
Presidents of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Prisoners of Oflag II-C