Michał Gryziński

Michał Gryziński (29 September 1930 - 1 June 2004) was a Polish nuclear physicist specialized in plasma physics. In 1965 he developed some widely used empirical models to reproduce some of the results of electron scattering experiments.

Life Michał Gryziński was born in 1930, son of Jan and Stefania, in Anin, Warsaw, Poland.

He studied in Władysław IV school in Warsaw and obtained a master's degree in engineering from Warsaw University of Technology in 1955. He would have then started working with , His experimental and theoretical consideration have led him 1957 to emphasize the importance of the orbital motion of electrons of a medium for stopping of slow charged particles. This work led him to a series of articles in 1965 about the problem of scattering with classical approximation of dynamics of the electrons.

The first three papers in 1965 developed a model electron scattering from atoms based on an empirical form for the velocity of electrons in the atom. These results where widely used for computing cross sections. For plasma research the inelastic scattering cross-section for electrons from atoms is needed to understand plasma energy loss mechanisms. The Born approximation cross sections work for energies above 200 eV; the Gryziński model has been shown match experiment better below 40eV. Similarly, using exact analytic calculations for hydrogen atoms, the classical Gryzinski model works well at low energy but fails for higher energies. Numerous extensions of Gryziński's model have been applied to atom-electron impact ionization.

The fourth paper in 1965 replaced the empirical velocity distribution with a free fall model of the electron in the atom, based on classical mechanics. Gryziński's later work all focused on this model.

Books In 1996, Gryziński published a book titled True and false achievements of modern physics.

In 2002, Gryziński published a book-length description of his classical atomic theory along with related topics. Eryk Infeld pointed that Gryziński's book was a good read and that it had interesting observations of the state of the world, however, Infeld remarked the lack of mention of the successes of quantum theory and qualified Gryziński's remarks about the state of science and Poland as extremely pessimistic.

Honor and awards Gryziński received the Knight's Cross of Polonia Restituta and the first class Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. Upon retirement he received the Soltan Medal from the Institute of Nuclear Studies.