Janusz Onyszkiewicz

Janusz Adam Onyszkiewicz (, born 18 December 1937) is a Polish mathematician, alpinist and politician, who served as Minister of Defence twice, in the cabinets of Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993) and Jerzy Buzek (1997–2000).

Later in his career, Onyszkiewicz was a Member of the European Parliament.

Early life and education Onyszkiewicz was born in Lwów (then Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine). He graduated in mathematics from Warsaw University. He became a mathematician, and was also known as an alpinist in the 1970s along with his wife Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz. After Alison's death on Annapurna in 1978, Onyszkiewicz gave up altitude climbing and turned to politics.

Political career In the 1980s, Onyszkiewicz became the spokesman for the anti-communist Solidarity movement. In 1986, he was again detained by the police, preventing him from holding a news conference on behalf of political prisoners that was scheduled to coincide with the start of a conference of intellectuals.

Member of the Polish Parliament After the fall of communism in 1989, Onyszkiewicz became a member of the Polish Sejm. He served all subsequent terms from May 1989 until 2001. In the spring of 1990, Onyszkiewicz and Bronisław Komorowski became the first civilian vice-ministers of defence in the communist-dominated Ministry of Defence.