Great Polish chemists – everything you need to know about their achievements

The history of Polish chemists and their most important discoveries

Since the time when Jędrzej Śniadecki wrote the first chemistry textbook in Poland (published in 1807), the work of chemists has changed dramatically. The current, ultra-modern laboratories and research centres, supported by innovative technologies and advanced equipment, provide incomparably greater opportunities than those of the father of Polish chemistry, the author of the foundations of the national chemical terminology. Śniadecki’s scientific achievements are an inspiration for many other prominent scientists, such as Ignacy Łukasiewicz, the founder of the oil industry, and Maria Skłodowska-Curie, who discovered two radioactive elements and is the first female Nobel Prize winner in history.

The scale of the achievements of Polish scientists is best seen in retrospect. Today, we cannot imagine the conquest of space without rocket fuel, in which the function of the oxidant is carried out by liquefied oxygen, first obtained in this form in 1883 by Karol Olszewski and Zygmunt Wróblewski. Furthermore, learning about the structure of haemoglobin – one of the most important components of blood – would never have been possible without the development of the chemical formula of haemin by Marceli Nencki and Jan Zaleski. They were the leading representatives of the so-called Polish School – a group of scientists focused around organic chemistry, in which Leon Marchlewski was also an important figure. In 1898, Skłodowska-Curie and her husband discovered radium and polonium, and their research on radioactivity gave rise to a completely new field, called radiochemistry.

The beginning of the 20th century was an extremely successful period for Polish chemists. The famous scientist, and later president of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki, developed a method of obtaining nitric acid from air, and Kazimierz Funk laid the foundations of the science of vitamins, extracting the first vitamin: B1. Poles were also successful in the area of nuclear chemistry (the law of radioactive shifts, discovered by Kazimierz Fajans), or in the field of semiconductors (Jerzy Czochralski’s achievements in the production of large metal crystals).

Currently, Poles are also very successful in many fields, such as: coordination and organometallic chemistry, solid state and silicate chemistry. Polish chemists and their discoveries are also valued around the world for their activity in the field of materials engineering, dealing with the design of materials with increased durability, or biodegradable materials.

Taking into consideration both the significant differences in research expenditures between Poland and the richest countries in the world, as well as the very fact that our country is only 35th in the world in terms of population, the achievements of Polish chemists deserve recognition. In terms of the number of specialist publications per 1 scientist in the field of chemistry, our country occupies an excellent 11th place.

The most famous Polish chemists – figures known by the whole world

Considering the prestigious position of famous Polish chemists in the world, it is worth getting to know their biographies and scientific achievements. Below we present the profiles of the most famous scientists who laid the foundations for the Polish and global chemical industry.

Ignacy Łukasiewicz

Ignacy Łukasiewicz (born in 1822) was a Polish chemist and pharmacist, and one of the founders of the oil industry. His most famous achievement is the invention of the kerosene lamp, but  other achievements of this prominent scientist are also worth mentining. In 1852, he conducted the first successful process of refining crude oil, separating it from chemical impurities. In the course of his research, he came to the conclusion that a boiling mixture emits a vapour of a different composition than the liquid. Steam condensation allows to obtain several fractions of distillate, differing in chemical composition. This way he obtained kerosene, which is a warm oil fraction with a boiling point in the range of 150-320ºC. The discovery brought him international fame.

After inventing the fuel, Łukasiewicz tried to find a practical application for it. Initially, he used it to supply oil lamps, but soon he realised that their construction is not adapted to kerosene. Then he constructed kerosene lamps, which he initially used to illuminate the pharmacy that employed him, and in 1853 he introduced them to the hospital in Lviv.

Ignacy Łukasiewicz is not only an prominent Polish chemist with significant achievements, but also a great patriot. He was active in organizations, political parties, and independence movements. He was arrested for his activities in 1846. He was released from prison on December 27, 1847. He died in 1882, as the founder of the first oil refinery in Poland, the initiator of several oil mines, including in Gorlicke, Beskid Dukielski or Bóbrka, as well as the founder of medical facilities, chapels, and other objects built for the benefit of the local population.

Ignacy Mościcki

When writing about great Polish chemists and their achievements, it is impossible to omit Ignacy Mościcki, who, apart from his undoubted merits for the world of science, was also a leading figure on the Polish political scene in the interwar period. He was the President of the Republic of Poland from 1926 to 1939, until internment in Romania in September 1939. He studied chemistry at the Riga Technical University and at the Technical College in Finsbury. He was a lecturer at the University of Fribourg, and since 1912 he had been the chairman of the Department of Electrochemistry and Physics at the Lviv Polytechnic, later to be appointed chancellor of the university. He spent the last years of his life, from December 1939 to October 1946, in Switzerland. He died in Versoix near Geneva at the age of 79.

Mościcki’s scientific career, apart from building a recognized academic authority, was also focused on building the Polish chemical industry. He founded the State Nitrogen Compounds Plant in Tarnów and was instrumental in establishing the plants in Mościce and Chorzów. He became famous, among others, thanks to the method of obtaining nitric acid (HNO₃) from air and water, which is commonly used today, e.g. in the creation of fertilisers, in the processes of nitration and metalworking, or in the production of explosives.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie

It is hard to imagine any list of famous Polish chemists and their achievements without including Maria Skłodowska-Curie in it. This prominent scientist, who spent most of her life in France, where she conducted her most important research together with her husband, Pierre Curie, has earned a special spot not only in the history of Polish, but also world science. Her discoveries deserve a separate, extensive article, but if we were to list only the most important ones, the list would certainly include:

• the discovery of two radioactive elements: radium and polonium,
• winning the Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) for her participation in the discovery of natural radioactivity,
• conducting research on the radioactivity of uranium ores,
• experiments on the radioactivity of polonium, radium, and a thorium isotope,
• obtaining radium in metallic form (Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911).

She was the first woman to obtain the professor title at the Sorbonne, the prestigious University of Paris, where she had previously studied, combining study with work as a tutor. In 1893 she obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics, and a year later in mathematics. In 1895 she married Pierre Curie, with whom she shared not only a deep feeling, but also common scientific interests. The Radium Institute was established in Warsaw on May 29, 1932 on her initiative – two years before the death of this double Nobel Prize winner, who died of leukemia, caused by many years of research on radioactive substances. Maria Skłodowska-Curie is to this day considered one of the most prominent Polish scientists, and dozens of schools, numerous research institutes, and the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University founded in 1944 in Lublin, i.e. the popular UMCS, have been named after her.

Kazimierz Funk

Another prominent Polish chemist, Kazimierz Funk, born in 1884, is known primarily as a pioneer of the science of vitamins. He is also the author of the very term “vitamin”, derived from the Latin “vita”, meaning life. These compounds, necessary for the proper functioning of the body, come primarily from plant- and animal-based food. Kazimierz Funk became famous, among others, for that he isolated pure vitamin B1 from rice bran and isolated nicotinic acid (niacin), which is a derivative of pyridine. During his extensive scientific career, he also dealt with cancer and conducted research on sex hormones.

Karol Olszewski and Zygmunt Wróblewski

Karol Olszewski was a Polish chemist, cryogenist and physicist, professor at the Jagiellonian University, born in 1846. His greatest achievement is considered to be the liquefaction of oxygen and nitrogen, which he accomplished together with Zygmunt Wróblewski in 1883. Before taking over the chair of physics at the Jagiellonian University, Wróblewski lived in Berlin, Strasbourg and Paris, where he deepened his knowledge of the liquefaction of gases. After returning to Poland, Wróblewski performed, among others, solidification of alcohol and carbon dioxide, and he also calculated the critical constants of hydrogen. After Wróblewski’s death in 1888, Olszewski continued his research on the liquefaction of gases. Together with William Ramsay, they liquefied and solidified argon, which was officially confirmed by the Royal Society in London. Olszewski died in 1915 in his office in Kraków.

Other famous Polish chemists

In addition to the scientists listed above, it is also worth mentioning several other prominent personalities from the world of science, such as:

• Zofia Jerzmanowska – conducting research in the field of organic chemistry and phytochemistry,
• Aleksander Wiesław Zamojski – worked, among others, on the determination of the structure of antibiotics
• Wanda Polaczkowa – dealing with e.g. aminoalcohols,
• Osman Achmatowicz – professor of organic chemistry specializing, among others, in sugar chemistry, stereochemistry and chemical nomenclature,
• Stanisław Kostanecki – professor at the University of Bern, one of the most prominent Polish organic chemists, author of about 200 scientific papers,
• Leon Paweł Marchlewski – chancellor of the Jagiellonian University, nominated for the Nobel Prize three times, author of numerous studies in the field of organic and inorganic chemistry, chemical technology and biochemistry,
• Przemysław Mastalerz – professor at the Wrocław University of Technology, specialist in bioorganic chemistry of phosphorus.

Prominent Polish chemists and the development of the chemical industry in Poland

The years of the birth of the chemical industry and its dynamic development fall in our country in the interwar period. It was then that the first refineries, fertilizer plants, factories of paints, varnishes and dyes, as well as explosives, began to be established throughout the country. At the same time, the pharmaceutical industry was growing in strength, supported by rapidly developing scientific institutions and specialists in the field of biochemistry and organic chemistry. It is impossible not to associate the period of the first great achievements of the chemical industry with the great achievements of the famous Polish chemists listed in this text. The next period of dynamic development of the industry took place in the years 1950 to 1970 of the XXth century, when the growth dynamic of the chemical industry was as much as 1.5 times higher than the growth dynamic of the Polish industry in general.

Despite the still noticeable disproportions between Poland and the world’s leading countries in terms of the amount of expenditure on scientific research, even today, Polish scientists set the tone for the dynamically developing industry. Modern companies in the chemical sector invest more and more in modern infrastructure, which allows them to successfully compete with leading manufacturers of chemical products from around the world.

The chemical sector today provides over 300,000 jobs, which represents 11% of employment in national industrial production. Our export brands, due to the high degree of specialization and access to the latest technologies, are often indicated as role models, as well as leaders of their industries throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Close cooperation between science and business is one of the key factors that enabled our companies to develop such a strong position and high competitiveness.