Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

Graduate of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Gdansk University of Technology (1948), doctor of Warsaw University of Technology (1954), assistant professor to the Polish Academy of Sciences (1955), associate professor (1963). He worked at IPPT in 1954-1957 and 1960 (between these years, he worked at the Military University of Technology). Head of the Laboratory of Theory of Electromagnetic Fields at the Department of Theoretical Electrical Engineering, and since 1964, acting Head of the Department of Theory of Communications. An outstanding specialist in the field of theory and application of electromagnetic waves (asymptotic properties, impact waves, propagation in ionized media, radiation, antennas, waveguides, and transmission lines). Lecturer, constructor of ARAL analogue machine - one of the first three mathematical machines in Poland. Organizer of a conference on the theory of electromagnetic waves. Since 1954, he was the Secretary of Polski Komitet Narodowy URSI, Międzynarodowa Unia Nauk Radiowych (URSI Polish National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science). Founder, member and secretary-general to PTETiS (Polskie Towarzystwo Elektrotechniki Teoretycznej i Stosowanej – Polish Society of Theoretical and Applied Electrotechnics, established in 1961). Author of over 40 scientific publications, including a monograph - Metody analiz pól elektromagnetycznych (Methods of analyses of electromagnetic fields), supervisor of 10 doctoral dissertations.

Aviation Engineer, graduate (1929) and researcher at the Warsaw University of Technology (1939-1945). His research in analytical mapping and the use of conformal mapping resulted in receiving a doctorate in 1931 and habilitation in 1934. Corresponding member (1954) and then member (1966) of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 1946, professor at the Silesian University of Technology, where responsible for the initiation of technical studies. Since 1952, professor at the Department of Aerodynamics at WUT, and since 1955, at the Department of Aerohydrodynamics of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Warsaw. Organizer and Head of the Department of the Mechanics of Fluids and Gases at IPPT PAN (1953-1961). Initiator of the first scientific conferences devoted to the issues and methods in liquid mechanics, later transformed into international biennial symposia. Author of 50 scientific papers, most of which were devoted to the methods of analyzing aerodynamic fields in spatial, non-stationary compressible flows. Author of the unified theory of simple and double waves in gas dynamics and mathematical bases for the description of inviscid compressible flows.

Graduate and – since 1948 – assistant at Warsaw University of Technology, Department of Electronic Engineering. One of the first employees of the Department of Vibration Research Polish Academy of Sciences (1952) in the field of acoustics. At IPPT PAN since the Vibration Research Department was incorporated into the Institute, until his tragic death in the mountains in Hindu Kush. He received the doctoral degree in 1960, habilitation degree in 1967 and professor degree in 1975. Head of the Department of Physical Acoustics (1961-1973), IPPT deputy director for research (1973-1977). Most of his research was devoted to methods of acoustic measurement, relations between parameters of acoustic fields and mechanical properties of solids and fluids, and also the applications of piezoelectric transducers. Author of 2 books, 60 publications and 10 patents. He became a leading authority among the international community of acousticians.

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.