Roman Smoluchowski

Roman Smoluchowski (born 31 August 1910 in Zakopane; died 12 January 1996 in Austin, Texas) was a notable physicist who worked in Poland, and after World War II settled in Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the son of the statistical physics pioneer Marian Smoluchowski. In 1974, Roman Smoluchowski was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1984, the minor planet 4530 Smoluchowski was named after him.

Education and Career Smoluchowski had a prominent career in industrial and academic research in physics and astrophysics. He graduated from the University of Warsaw with a Master's degree in 1933, and from the University of Groningen in 1935. He spent a post-doctoral year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. After that he returned to Poland to head the Department of Physics and Metals at the University of Warsaw. Once he escaped the horrors of war and returned to the USA, he became a research physicist at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York. He worked on intelligence matters there, and among the pieces of information to which he had access to was a list of Polish citizens scheduled for capture and execution by the Germans. His own name was on that list.

Awards and honors Source:

Brazil Acad Scis Fellow AAAS Finnish Acad Scis 1984: Planet 4530 Smoluchowski named after him 1976: Jurzykowski Award 1974: Guggenheim Fellowship 1956: Fulbright Fellowship 1938: U of Liège Lect Medal