Introduction
In 1989, after the collapse of the post-war communistic state, Poland returned to democracy as the first East European country. Free parliament elections are taking place since then every four years (last in 1997). The president is also elected every five years in direct voting. Recently, A. Kwaśniewski has been elected for the second term.
A series of deep economic reforms has been initiated in 1990, which directed Poland towards a modern capitalistic state. At present, about 70% of the economy is privately owned. The GNP increases by 5-7% per year and the inflation rate has been decreased to 8-10%. The Polish currency, złoty, became fully convertible. The actual exchange rate to Euro is 3.9, to US dollars 4.4, and to the German Mark 1.9. The banking system is very efficient and well organised; many western banks have their branches in Poland.
Since 1995 Poland has in the European Community the status of an Associated Country. After recent meeting in Nice, it has been decided that our country should become a full EC member by the year 2004 belonging to the group of large countries, having 27 votes, i.e., the same number as Spain.
Cracow, the proposed conference site is a flourishing and prosperous city offering a full spectrum of exciting cultural events to the crowds of visitors from all around the world. Last year 3.7 millions tourists visited the city.
For the year 2000, Cracow, former capital of Poland, since 1000 years the town of art and science, was nominated to be “The Capital of European Culture”.
History of Cracow
Situated on the water-course of the Vistula river, crossed here by important routes of trade between Western and Eastern, as well as Northern and Southern Europe, Cracow, almost from the very dawn of Polish history till seventeenth century was the political and administrative capital of the country, and remains its intellectual and cultural centre until now. Wawel. The limestone hill at Vistula banks, inhabited by men since prehistoric times, became the fortified seat of Polish dukes and kings. It is the "heart" of Polish history and the most revered monument of the whole country.
Cracow, at the end of the tenth century a seat of the bishopric, was in the eleventh century developed into a flourishing city built in Romanesque style. Exposed to the attack of Dhengis-Khan who burned part of the city in the thirteenth century, Cracow was rebuilt in 1257 according to the plan of a Gothic city that has undergone no essential changes till our days.
In the days of Ladislaus the Short (1320), the Cracow Cathedral became the coronation and burial place of Polish kings. The city owes its particularly successful development to his son, Casimirus the Great, the founder of the University in 1364.
During the Renaissance period, Cracow under the Jagiellonian dynasty became a centre of art and culture, and the imposing Renaissance Courtyard was added to the old Royal Castle. A large number of palaces, municipal buildings, churches, chapels and sculptures is dating from that period.
After the transfer, by Sigismund III Vasa, of the king's residence to Warsaw in 1609, the importance of Cracow considerably declined, but it remained the centre of learning.
During the first half of the nineteenth century, the town, having the status of a free city-state after the Vienna Congress in 1815, roused again to prominence as a main cultural centre of Poland, at that time divided among three foreign powers: Austria, Prussia and Russia.
Today, Cracow, with its population of ca. 1 000 000 and 150 000 students, is a third largest town of Poland. With its Jagiellonian University, Technical University and University of Mining and Metallurgy, numerous other institutions of higher education, museums, symphonic orchestras,
theatres and other cultural institutions, the present day Cracow is one of the main scientific, cultural and educational centres of the country.
In 1978, Cracow was declared by UNESCO one of the treasures of the World's Culture Heritage. Of many valuable monuments of Cracow, the following rank among the most important artistic beauties of the city:
The most ancient building of the hill, the early Romanesque rotunda chapel dates back to the tenth century.
The main building ensemble on the hill is the former Gothic Royal Castle, rebuild in the sixteenth century in the Renaissance style by King Sigismund the Old. The castle buildings are grouped around the beautiful arcade courtyard. The castle houses unique collections of objects of arts, including the famous collection of Renaissance tapestries, made in Brussels for King Sigismund August, the crown treasury with the royal insignia and the castle armory. A collection of Turkish tents captured at the battle of Vienna in 1683 is also interesting.
Main Marked Square. It is the biggest square in Europe. The square was traced out in the thirteenth century and is surrounded with residences of nobility and houses of merchants, built and rebuilt in every historic style from Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque to modern design. | ||||
Barbican and St. Florian’s Gate are the remaining parts of old fortifications surrounding the town in the Middle Ages.  The Barbican | ||||
Built in 1887 the Neo-Gothic style Collegium Novum is the seat of the Rector office. A majority of the university faculties and institutes are located, however, in several campuses in other parts of the town. | ||||
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(Collegium Museum exhibit) |
Science
The Jagiellonian University was founded by King Casimirus the Great in 1364. It was the second university in central Europe after Prague. At first the University had three faculties - law, medicine and philosophy, the fourth - theology - was added soon. This foundation was confirmed in 1400 by King Ladislaus Jagiello in his "renovation" edict and financially supported by the bequest of his wife Queen Jadwiga. Thanks to this bequest the Collegium Maius was built. The University was widely known in Medieval Europe for its original ideas in law and arts. During the great general council in Konstanz (1414-18) the jurist Paweł Włodkowic, then the Rector of the University, became famous for his, novel for the time, concepts of the national sovereignty, religious tolerance and advocated the rights of pagan nations. At that time, Nicolaus Copernicus, the great astronomer, was studying here.
In 1777 Hugo Kołłątaj, then the Rector, carried out a number of reforms, which transformed the University into a modern higher education institution. The University acquired modern laboratories, clinics, a botanical garden and an astronomical observatory. At that time, the lectures of chemistry were initiated.
In 1883 the physicist Zygmunt Wróblewski and the chemist Karol Olszewski liquefied for the first time air and soon after other gases as well.
However, scientific Cracow is not only limited to the University. Since 1873 (beginnings can be traced to 1818) the Academy of Fine Arts has educated future painters and sculptors. In 1919 the University of Mining and Metallurgy was founded as the first technical school followed by the Technical University. Now, they are important centres of technical sciences. At present, there are 12 institutions of higher education in Cracow, with hundred fifty thousand students.
In 1816 the Cracow Science Society was founded in the town, which created the basis for the Academy of Arts and Sciences established in 1871. Famous scientists and artists of many disciplines were elected as the members. After regaining the independence by the Polish State in 1918, the Academy was renamed as Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and played the role of the most prestigious scientific institution in the country. In 1952 the Polish Academy of Sciences was created in Warsaw with a branch in Cracow, bewaring a national research center.
Today the branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow comprises about 20 institutes and laboratories, which carry out scientific research in a variety of disciplines.
Surface and interface science in Cracow
Cracow has a long and well-established tradition in studies of surface phenomena. At the beginning of this century Marjan Smoluchowski, the founder of the theory of electrokinetic phenomena worked at the Jagiellonian University. He also became world known for his studies of Brownian motion and the theory of coagulation of colloids. At the same time the chair of physical chemistry was held by L. Bruner, pupil of Berthelot and Ostwald and collaborator of Tammann and Haber, who started the investigations on kinetics in heterogeneous systems and catalysis. He was followed by a brilliant physical chemist B. Szyszkowski, collaborator of Ostwald, Ramsay and Arrhenius, who developed in Cracow complex studies in surface chemistry and electrochemistry. He established the mathematical expression describing the correlation between the concentration of surface active compounds and the surface tension of their solutions, known in world literature as the Szyszkowski equation. Chemistry of gas/liquid interface was then rapidly developed by his pupil and successor at the Chair of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of the Jagiellonian University, B. Kamieński, known for his studies of electric fields at interfaces. In his labs, the influence of surfactant adsorption on electrical potentials of interfaces was first determined. Important contributions also were made by this school, especially A. Pomianowski to the theory of flotation.
Simultaneously, other school of thinking of physical chemistry of gas/solid interfaces originated around A. Bielański, who at the University of Mining and Metallurgy, then at the Jagiellonian University. This research group furnished first experimental evidences of the validity of electronic theory of catalysis and its limitations.
In the late sixties it was realized that time was ripe for an attempt to create a platform for mutual exchange of ideas between the "wet" and "dry" surface scientists, whose language began to diverge significantly. In order to fill this gap the Cracow Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry was established by the Polish Academy of Sciences with the main objective to foster our knowledge of physical chemistry of gas/solid, gas/liquid and liquid/solid interfaces. The comprehensive information about the Institute, organiser of the Electrokinetic conference can be found below.
The Institute
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INSTITUTE OF CATALYSIS AND SURFACE CHEMISTRY POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCE ul. Niezapominajek 8, 30-239 Kraków, POLAND |
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phone director phone fax |
(+4812) 6395-101 (+4812) 6395-100 (+4812) 425-1923 |
e-mail WWW page |
ncksiaze@cyf-kr.edu.pl http://www.ik-pan.krakow.pl/ |
The Institute was established on 1st January 1968 initially as Research Laboratories of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry having the Scientific Council jointly with the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Since 28th November 1978, when the appropriate decree of the Council of Ministers of Poland was issued, it exists as an independent Institute with its own Scientific Council. Professor Jerzy Haber, current Director, leads the Institute since its foundation.
The activities of the Institute cover the interdisciplinary field of the physical chemistry of interfacial phenomena with an emphasis put on their significance and mechanism in catalysis, flotation, adsorption and detergency. The main topics of research are,
Scientific staff (2002)
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ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS |
ADJUNCTS |
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Zbigniew Adamczyk Adam Bielański Ewa Brocławik Barbara Grzybowska-Świerkosz Jerzy Haber Józef Korecki Andrzej Pomianowski Władysław Rudziński Ewa Serwicka-Bahranowska Małgorzata Witko |
Roman Kozłowski Kazimierz Małysa Jerzy Słoczyński Bogdan Sulikowski Piotr Warszyński |
Wanda Barzyk Mateusz Drach Mirosław Derewiński Marian Gqsior Ryszard Grabowski Andrzej Kowal Tadeusz Machej Anna Micek-Ilnicka Dariusz Mucha Anna Lubańska Pawel Nowak Piotr Olszewski Tomasz Pańczyk Wojciech Piasecki Jan Połtowicz Barbara Siwek Nika Spiridis Lilianna Szyk-Warszyńska Renata Tokarz-Sobieraj Paweł Weroński Maria Zembala |
