This talk presents history and people connected with establishment and activity of the Polish Physical Society (PPS) branch in Lviv in the years 1921–1939, and in Wrocław, after the World War II.
The Lviv Branch of the Polish Physical Society was established on January 25, 1921.
The first president of the Branch was Prof. Tadeusz Godlewski from the Lviv Institute of Technology and his deputy was Prof. Stanisław Loria from the Jan Kazimierz University (UJK). At the moment of its establishment the Branch counted 29 members.
The succeeding presidents of the Lviv Branch of PPS were: Stanisław Loria, Tadeusz Malarski, Zygmunt Klemensiewicz, and Czesław Reczyński.
There were two Congresses of Polish Physicists, organized together by physicists from the UJK and the Institute of Technology, under the auspices of PPS, which took place in Lwów: the 3rd Congress in 1926, and 8th Congress in 1936.
The Wrocław Branch of the Polish Physical Society was established in 1947.
. The first president of the Wrocław Branch was Prof. Stanisław Loria who arrived to the demolished city already in May 1945 and from the beginning organized physics in Wrocław. At the moment of establishment of the Wrocław Branch, amidst 17 members of the PPS only seven were physicists.
After Loria, the next three succeeding presidents of the Wrocław Branch were: Jan Nikliborc, Jan Wesołowski, and Roman S. Ingarden. There were four Congresses of Polish Physicists organized in Wrocław: in 1957, 1977, 1995, and 2017.
(in the photo: map of Lviv attached to the materials of the 8th Congress of Polish Physicists in 1936.)
Adam Kiejna is full professor of physics at the University of Wrocław.
His research interests are primarily concerned with theoretical description and ab initio simulation of structural and electronic properties of surfaces, interfaces and nanostructures of materials, and physical phenomena occurring at solid surfaces. He is also interested in history of physics.
He was president of the Wrocław Branch of the Polish Physical Society in the years 2002–2005.
Credits:
Photos by Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, Uniwersytet Wrocławski and Adam Kiejna