Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

Graduate of Gdańsk University of Technology (1934); a construction engineer. He designed port structures in Gdynia and built an airframe factory in Mielec. He spent the war in an Oflag prisoner-of-war camp, where he devoted his time to preparing the theses for his later dissertation and habilitation degree, which he received just after the war in September-December 1945, from the Warsaw University of Technology. Since 1945, at the Gdańsk University of Technology: Associate Professor (1947), Head of the Structural Mechanics Department, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering (1947-1949) and Vice-Rector (1949-1952). In 1952-1955, he headed the Department of Structural Mechanics at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology. In 1955-1981, he joined the University of Warsaw, where he took up the position of: head of the Department of Elasticity and Viscosity Theory (1955-1969), the Department of Solid Mechanics (1969-1981) and director of the Institute of Mechanics (1969-1978). Since 1952, he was a corresponding member, and since 1956 - a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Secretary of Research of the Department IV of Technical Sciences (1956-1968). At the Polish Academy of Sciences, he held the following positions: Secretary of Research (1956-1968), vice-president (1969-1977) and president (1978-1980). He was also one of the founding fathers of the IPPT: founder and manager of the Laboratory of Theory of Elasticity, mentor of the Department of Theory of Continuous Media. For many years, he chaired the IPPT Scientific Council.

Creator of the Polish school of thermal elasticity and asymmetrical elasticity and initiator of research in the theory of interconnected fields. He authored over 200 publications, including several monographs, which were translated into many languages. He is also the author of well-known academic textbooks, reprinted in Poland and abroad. He supervised 28 dissertations. Honorary doctor (doctor honoris causa) of ten universities and a member of three foreign academies of sciences. Honoured with the highest state awards, he was a two-time laureate of the First Class State Award (1955 and 1964).

Graduate of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology – he received the diploma from Prof. J. Groszkowski in 1953. In pursuit of his academic interests, he furthered his studies at the Hertz Institute in Berlin. In 1941, he became doctor of the underground Faculty of Architecture, organized by the Warsaw University of Technology. In 1943, he received the degree of venia legendi (corresponding to the contemporary Polish habilitation degree – a post-doctoral academic degree). Later in 1946 – he became Associate Professor and in 1952 – Professor at the same university. A corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) since 1954, and a member since 1958.

Member of the PAN Praesidium, Deputy Secretary of Research (1961-1968), an honorary member of many associations and federations (e.g. ASA, FASE, ISCU). In 1936 he co-established a laboratory for the Polish Radio, where he developed a functional and acoustic design of the Central Broadcasting Station.

After the war, he carried out acoustic projects in the rebuilt areas of Sejm and National Theatre. He founded the Department of Applied Electrical Engineering and Acoustics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Gdansk University of Technology. 1951-1969 Head of the Department of Electroacoustics, first Dean of the Faculty of Communications, then Vice-Rector of the Warsaw University of Technology. Organizer of the Department of Vibration Research (1951), one of the four core departments which formed the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IPPT), established in 1952. First Director of IPPT (1953-1962; and later 1973-1983).

Pioneer of acoustics as an interdisciplinary science – integrating building and architecture acoustics, audioacoustics, electroacoustics, hydroacoustics, ultrasound, physical and quantum acoustics. In later years, the Professor extended his academic pursuit in the research of acoustic emission.

He authored 11 monographs and c. 230 publications, of which Physical Foundations of Technical Acoustics deserves special attention. This textbook was published by Pergamon Press, Oxford (1969), and valued by students in many countries.

Supervisor of 25 doctoral dissertations. Head of the UNESCO Department of Science Policy in Paris (1969-1972). Organizer of the Acoustics Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, initiator of the establishment of the Science Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Honorary Doctor (doctor honoris causa) at: Budapest University of Technology, AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow and Gdańsk University of Technology. Winner of State Awards and numerous distinctions.

He graduated from the Faculty of Metallurgy at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in 1917. After returning to Poland, he started working in secondary education, and then as a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Metal Science at the Warsaw University of Technology. In 1928, he received his doctorate; in 1930, the degree of venia legendi, (corresponding to the contemporary Polish habilitation degree – a post-doctoral academic degree) and was appointed associate professor, and then, in 1939, professor. Also in 1930, he was appointed professor at the AGH University of Science and Technology and in 1934, member of the Academy of Technical Sciences. During the Second World War, together with other professors from Kraków’s universities, he was deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and returned in 1940. Following the establishment of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in 1952, he also became its member. He was appointed Head of the Metals Department of PAN, founded upon his initiative and based in Cracow, and since 1953, operated as part of the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPPT PAN). In 1969, the department started operating as an independent research centre of the PAN and, subsequently, was given the name of A. Krupkowski Institute of Metallurgy and Metal Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Aleksander Krupkowski’s high versatility allowed for developing his interests in a vast area of metal science: thermodynamics of basic metal production and refining processes; the kinetics of oxidation and reduction reactions in oxides; metal rectification: phase transitions in alloys, plastic deformation processes, and mechanical properties. He succeeded in achieving outstanding results in all these areas of interest.

The author of about 300 papers published in Poland and abroad, including two very significant monographs: Zasady termodynamiki i ich zastosowanie w metalurigii i metaloznawstwie (Principles of thermodynamics and their application in metallurgy and metal science, 1958) and Podstawowe zagadnienia teorii procesów metalurgicznych (Basic issues of the theory of metallurgic processes, 1974). Despite his lack of commitment in the political life of the communist PRL (which to many guaranteed career successes), he was awarded highest state prizes for his contribution to science – he was a three-time laureate of the First Class State Award and was conferred the degree of honorary doctor (doctor honoris causa), at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology.