Stefan Kopec

Stefan Witysław Kopeć (; January 22, 1888 – March 11, 1941 ) was a Polish biologist and pioneer of insect endocrinology. He discovered the role of the insect brain in the production of prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH). Kopeć was director at Puławy Agricultural Research Station. Along with his son, he was executed by the Germans during World War II.

Biography Stefan Kopeć was born in Warsaw, son of physician Stanisław and Ksawery née Lilpop. He studied at the 5th government gymnasium and graduated in 1906. He received a doctor of philosophy from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He received his PhD there in 1912 with a thesis titled Untersuchungen über Kastration und Transplantation bei Schmetterlingen, and worked for two years as an assistant to Tadeusz Garbowski. In 1914 he worked with František Vejdovský in Prague on the role of the swim bladder in fish. He worked at Puławy Agricultural Research Station in Poland between 1915 becoming its head in 1918 and working there until 1920. He also worked on embryology with Emil Godlewski Jr. In 1929, he was made director of the institute. from specimens caught in the wild. His subsequent scientific activities helped determine the role of the insect brain in hormone production. He was the earliest researcher to understand the importance of the insect brain, as is demonstrated by his statement in a 1917 paper: "For the normal process of metamorphosis the presence of the brain, at least up to a certain moment, is indispensable..." He observed that nervous tissue could behave like an endocrine gland. This discovery stimulated further scientific research leading to the establishment of the field of science known as neuroendocrinology.

Kopeć's work was cut short due to his arrest by the Gestapo in 1940 together with his daughter Maria and son Stanisław in an operation against a Polish Underground State-run secret university. He was imprisoned at the Pawiak prison in Warsaw and executed by the Germans in 1941 at Palmiry,