The Polish Academy of Sciences (Polish: Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored national academy of sciences and institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars and a network of research institutes.
It was established in 1951, during the early period of the Polish People's Republic following World War II.
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History
The Polish Academy of Sciences was established by the merger of earlier science societies, including the Polish Academy of Learning (Polska Akademia Umiejętności, abbreviated PAU), with its seat in Kraków, and the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning (Science), which had been founded in the late 18th century.
The Polish Academy of Sciences functions as a learned society acting through an elected assembly of leading scholars and research institutions. The Academy has also, operating through its committees, become a major scientific advisory body.
Another aspect of the Academy is its coordination and overseeing of numerous (several dozen) research institutes. PAN institutes employ over 2,000 people and are funded by about a third of the Polish government's budget for science.
Leadership
The Polish Academy of Sciences is led by a President, elected by the assembly of Academy members for a four-year term, together with a number of Vice Presidents.
The President for the 2019–2022 term was Jerzy Duszyński (his second term in the post), together with five Vice Presidents: Stanisław Czuczwar, Stanisław Filipowicz, Paweł Rowiński, Roman Słowiński, and Romuald Zabielski.
On 20 October 2022, General Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences elected Marek Konarzewski to become the new President of the Academy for the 2023–2026 term. On 8 December 2022, another session of General Assembly of the Academy elected four Vice Presidents at the recommendation of the President Elect; as such Mirosława Ostrowska, Natalia Sobczak, and Dariusz Jemielniak, and Aleksander Welfe were elected as Vice Presidents of the Academy for the 2023–2026 term.
All the Presidents of the Polish Academy of Sciences to date, by term, are as follows:
Institutes
The Polish Academy of Sciences has numerous institutes, including:
Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy
Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology
Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies - established in 1972 in Łódź.
Bohdan Dobrzański Institute of Agrophysics
Museum and Institute of Zoology
Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition
Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences - established, 1954, became an independent institute in 1974; publishes the journal Pharmacological Reports.
Institute of Psychology
International Institute of Molecular Mechanisms and Machines, Polish Academy of Sciences
Institute of Slavic Studies
Institute of High Pressure Physics
Institute of Hydro-Engineering
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center
Institute of Fundamental Technological Research
Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science
Foreign members
Aage Bohr, physicist
Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz, cell biologist
Joseph H. Eberly, physicist
Erol Gelenbe, computer scientist and engineer
Martin Hairer, mathematician
Jack K. Hale, mathematician
Stephen T. Holgate, immunopharmacologist (2001)
Ernst Håkon Jahr, linguist
Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, Polish chemist working at Carnegie Mellon University
Robert K. Merton, sociologist
Karl Alexander Müller, physicist
Roger Penrose, mathematician
Carlo Rubbia, physicist
Peter M. Simons, philosopher
Boleslaw Szymanski, computer scientist
Chen Ning Yang, physicist
George Zarnecki, art historian
Periodicals
Acta Arithmetica
Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
Acta Ornithologica
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
Acta Physica Polonica
Annales Polonici Mathematici
Annales Zoologici
Archaeologia Polona
Archives of Acoustics
Fundamenta Mathematicae