On the 100th anniversary of the birth of a great scientist Prof. Wacław Szybalski, a special issue of Acta Biochimica Polonica dedicated to his memory has been published. It was guest edited by Professor Ewa Łojkowska, head of our laboratory.
The honorary patronage over the aforementioned 3/2021 issue of Acta Biochimica Polonica was carried out by the Biotechnology Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Professor Wacław Szybalski Foundation.
We highly encourage reading this publication
Professor Wacław Szybalski (1921 – 2020)
Born in Lviv, died in Madison, an outstanding Polish scientist who has been working for over 45 years at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA. He was a world-famous specialist in the field of molecular genetics and molecular medicine. He will remain in our memory as an outstanding scientist, mentor, educator and source of inspiration for many Polish researchers. On his initiative, the Professor Wacław Szybalski Foundation was established in 2007 to strengthen international prestige of Polish science and the city of Lviv. Professor Wacław Szybalski received five honorary doctorates. He actively participated in the human genome project. His scientific achievements include over 360 publications in the field of microbiology, general genetics, mutagenesis and molecular biology. He worked for many years on the mechanisms of chemical mutagenesis and was the first researcher to provide direct evidence for a connection between mutagenesis and carcenogenesis. His laboratory also laid the groundwork for transcription mapping in the lambda bacteriophage. The last years of the professor’s work focused on searching for methods for the physical mapping of the genome, modification of restriction enzymes, and especially sequencing of large genomes.
He was a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, a honorary member of the Italian Society of Experimental Biology and the Polish Society of Microbiology. He was the laureate of the Hilldale Medal of the University of Wisconsin, the Gold Medal of Grzegorz Mendel, awarded by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and The 2003 Casimir Funk Natural Science Award, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, 2003. By the decision of President Bronisław Komorowski of April 22, 2011 in recognition of his outstanding achievements in research work in the fields of biotechnology and genetics, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. He was decorated on May 3 2011 during the ceremony at the Royal Castle on the occasion of the May 3 National Day.
Together with prof. Karol Taylor and prof. Anna Podhajska he was the initiator of the establishment of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology at the University of Gdańsk and the Medical University of Gdańsk.
