Historia utworzenia Oddziału Polskiej Akademii Nauk w Lublinie

The beginnings of efforts to establish a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin

The establishment of a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences had been the intention of the scientific community in Lublin for many years. In the 1970s, this idea was supported by Prof. Tadeusz Krwawicz, a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Unfortunately, these efforts were not successful. Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin and Puławy therefore belonged to the Polish Academy of Sciences branch in Krakow. Taking into account the distance and difficult communication, and above all the growing scientific and educational importance of the Lublin-Puławy centre, in the 1990s the members of the Polish Academy of Sciences made another attempt to establish a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin. This was expressed in a letter sent to the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences on 15 May 1995, requesting the establishment of a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin. The letter was signed by the following members of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Jan Gliński, Jan Kisyński, Mieczysław Krąpiec, Zbigniew Lorkiewicz, Leszek Malicki, Stanisław Nawrocki, Bohdan Rodkiewicz and Marian Truszczyński.

Position of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences

In response, the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Prof. Leszek Kuźnicki, in a letter dated 26 May 1995, that the matter had been thoroughly considered at a meeting of the PAN Management on 22 May 1995. The Presidents and Secretaries of the PAN Departments gathered at this meeting decided that the matter should be considered at one of the next meetings of the PAN Presidium in the autumn of this year. We believe that the establishment of a new branch of the Academy is an extremely serious decision and that, in the current situation of the Academy, it requires the analysis of a number of diverse elements, both scientific and financial. At the meeting of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences on 9 October 1995, the discussion on the establishment of a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin was resumed. According to the minutes of that meeting, Prof. M. Truszczyński, one of the signatories of the aforementioned motion, presented the Lublin-Puławy region to those gathered as a thriving scientific centre, where, in addition to humanities institutions such as the Catholic University of Lublin, humanities departments of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University and the Lublin Scientific Society, there is a strong representation of institutions mainly engaged in biological, medical, agricultural and veterinary sciences, with the dominant position of agricultural sciences in the country deserving special attention. These considerations, according to the authors of the proposal, argue for the need to establish a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin. The President of the Polish Academy of Sciences assured that the Academy’s management appreciates the activity of the Lublin scientific community and accepts the motives for applying for the establishment of a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin. However, as a new act on the Polish Academy of Sciences is likely to be passed in the near future, which will clarify and stabilise the legal situation, including that of the branches of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences decided to postpone consideration of this proposal. Summing up the discussion, the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences considered the initiative to establish a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin to be justified and proposed its approval, but due to all the problems mentioned in the discussion, he decided to refer the matter of implementing the initiative to the authorities of the Polish Academy of Sciences of the new term.

Returning to the matter after the election of new authorities of the Polish Academy of Sciences

At the meeting of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences on 18 November 1996, following the election of new authorities, the issue of defining the formula for the functioning of the Branches by the Polish Academy of Sciences in the light of the new Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences, which was in the process of being drafted, was raised. The need to establish a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin and the organisational possibilities of this undertaking were also revisited. During the discussion on the branches, support was expressed for the establishment of a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin. In connection with this, the next meeting of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences was held on 5 May 1997 in Lublin, at the headquarters of the Lublin Scientific Society, at 2 Litewski Square. The programme included, among others, a paper by the Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Prof. Marian Truszczyński, entitled ‘Agricultural and biological sciences in the Lublin-Puławy scientific centre’ and a paper by Prof. Mieczysław A. Krąpiec entitled ‘The overall potential of the humanities in the Lublin area’. During the discussion, the characteristics of the Lublin-Puławy centre were supplemented with technical and medical sciences. Prof. L. Kuźnicki, opening the discussion on the establishment of a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin, said that he would like to present this matter at the next session of the General Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences on 22 May this year. According to Prof. Kuźnicki, Lublin is the last large scientific centre in Poland without a branch of the Academy. The establishment of this branch will strengthen both the position of the Academy and the Lublin community, said the President, who, for his part, unequivocally supported the creation of the branch. In the discussion, the majority of the Presidium members were in favour of establishing a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin. Prof. L. Kuźnicki put to the vote the matter of presenting a motion to establish a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin, together with relevant documentation and financial information, at the next session of the General Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In an open vote, 11 people were in favour of submitting the motion to the General Assembly, 1 person was against, and 3 abstained. Earlier, three members of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences, who were unable to participate in the vote, declared their support for the above initiative.

Decision of the General Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences

During the 87th session of the General Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences on 22–23 May 1997, the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences presented the discussion to date on the possible establishment of a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin. He concluded by stating that the scientific centre in Lublin and Puławy is the largest in the country where the Polish Academy of Sciences does not have a branch. It has a strong scientific base in the form of two universities, a polytechnic, a medical academy and an agricultural academy, as well as five significant scientific and research institutes (the National Veterinary Institute, Institute of Cultivation, Fertilisation and Soil Science, Institute of Artificial Fertilisers, Institute of Rural Medicine and Institute of Central and Eastern Europe), as well as a large branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin, i.e. the Institute of Agrophysics, pose serious challenges for the Branch in terms of integrating various scientific communities. He also stated that the establishment of the Lublin Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences is supported by the administrative authorities of the region – the Lublin Province Governor and the Mayor of Lublin. This was followed by a discussion. The majority of the Academy members participating in the discussion supported the project to establish a Branch in this area. They pointed to the integrative role that the Branches of the Polish Academy of Sciences play for the scientific community and, at the same time, to the fact that the Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin will be the last in the network of regional branches of the Academy, covering the region of eastern Poland. A vote was then taken. The General Assembly of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in an open vote, with 126 votes in favour, 4 against and 7 abstentions, adopted a resolution to establish a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin.

Prof. Marian Truszczyński, PAS Full Member