Polish Academy of Learning

The Polish Academy of Learning (Polish: "Polska Akademia Umiejętności"), headquartered in Kraków, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland, having the nature of an academy of sciences.

History

The Polish Academy of Learning (Polish: "Polska Akademia Umiejętności", abbreviated "PAU"), to 1919 called the Academy of Learning ("Akademia Umiejętności", abbreviated "AU"), founded in 1872 in Kraków as a continuation of the Kraków Society of Learning ("Towarzystwo Naukowe Krakowskie", established 1816), was the most important Polish learned organization of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its chief purposes were to organize, support and conduct learning and to represent Polish scientists and scholars to the world.

Merged in 1951 with other institutions to form the Polish Academy of Sciences ("Polska Akademia Nauk", abbreviated "PAN"), headquartered in Warsaw, in 1989 the Polish Academy of Learning was reactivated as a separate institution.

The Polish name, "Polska Akademia Umiejętności", might be rendered into English as "Polish Academy of Sciences." The latter name, however, has been preempted by the other institution, "Polska Akademia Nauk".

In 1942 a continuation of the Polish Academy of Learning, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, was established in New York City by Bronisław Malinowski, Oskar Halecki and other scholars associated with the Academy, which had been forcibly closed down by the occupying Germans. Following the collapse of communism in Poland, the Polish Academy of Learning was revived and became affiliated with the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (as the latter had meanwhile been renamed). [Thaddeus V. Gromada, "Haiman and Halecki in Light of the Polish Institute of Arts & Sciences of America Archives," "Polish American Studies", vol. LXIII, no. 2 (autumn 2006), pp. 79-92.]

Original divisions

* I - Philological (Filologiczny)
* II - Historical-Philosophical (Historyczno-Filozoficzny)
* III - Mathematical — Natural Sciences (Matematyczno-Przyrodniczy)
* IV - Medical (Lekarski), from 1930.

Modern divisions

* I - Philological (Filologiczny)
* II - Historical-Philosophical (Historyczno-Filozoficzny)
* III - Mathematical-Physical-Chemical (Matematyczno-Fizyczno-Chemiczny)
* IV - Natural Sciences (Przyrodniczy)
* V - Medical (Lekarski)
* VI - Artistic (Twórczości Artystycznej).

Presidents

* Józef Majer (1872-90),
* Stanisław Tarnowski (1890-1917),
* Kazimierz Morawski (1917-25),
* Jan Michał Rozwadowski (1925-29),
* Kazimierz Kostanecki (1929-34),
* Stanisław Wróblewski (1934-38),
* Stanisław Kutrzeba (1939-46),
* Kazimierz Nitsch (1946-57),
* Adam Krzyżanowski (1957-58),
* Gerard Labuda (1989-94),
* Kazimierz Kowalski (1994-2001)
* Andrzej Białas (from 2001)

Secrataries-general

* Józef Szujski (1872-83),
* Stanisław Tarnowski (1883-90),
* Stanisław Smolka (1890-1903),
* Bolesław Ulanowski (1903-19),
* Kazimierz Kostanecki (1919-21),
* Stanisław Wróblewski (1921-26),
* Stanisław Kutrzeba (1926-39),
* Tadeusz Kowalski (1939-48),
* Jan Konstanty Dąbrowski (1948-57),
* Adam Vetulani (1957-58),
* Józef Skąpski (1989-94),
* Jerzy Wyrozumski (od 1994)

Membership

Till 1952 PAU had a total of 676 domestic and 264 international members.

Famous members:

* Tadeusz Banachiewicz (1882-1954), astronomer, mathematician and geodesist.
* Gerard Labuda (b. 1916), medieval historian.
* Kazimierz Piwarski (1903-1968), historian of Pomerania, Silesia, East Prussia.
* Zygmunt Wojciechowski (1900-1955), historian of state and law, founder of the Western Institute.
* George Zarnecki (1915-2008), art historian specializing in English Romanesque sculpture

Notes

ee also

* Polish Academy of Sciences

External links

* [http://www.pau.krakow.pl/index_e.htm Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences]