Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska

Early life and education Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska was born in Sokołów Podlaski, Poland, on April 25, 1925. In 1928, her father, Franciszek Kielan, was offered a job for the Association of Agriculture and Trade Cooperatives in Warsaw, to which her family moved for five years. Zofia and family returned to Warsaw in 1934 and lived in Żoliborz - a borough of Warsaw. She began her studies in Warsaw, following the destruction after the war when the Nazis had attempted to completely destroy the city, resulting in the Department of Geology joining the ruins. She attended lectures given instead by the Polish paleontologist, Roman Kozłowski, in his own home.

During World War II, together with her family, she helped to hide two Jewish women.

Career and research She was employed by the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She held a number of functions in professional organizations in Poland and the United States.

From 1960 to 1982, she was the director of the Institute of Paleobiology. In 1982, she stepped down from her position to undertake a visiting professorship at the Musée national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, which lasted for two years. Soon after her return to Warsaw, she was appointed Professor of Paleontology at the University of Oslo, which lasted from 1986 to 1995 when she was appointed Professor Emerita in the institute of Paleobiology.

Awards and honours In 1988, she was awarded the Walter Granger Memorial Award.

In 1999, Kielan-Jaworowska received the Righteous Among the Nations Medal. Norwegian Paleontological Society, Polish Academy of Sciences as well as an honorary member of the Linnean Society of London, Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. as well as Indobaatar zofiae.

Personal life She married Zbigniew Jaworowski, a professor of radiobiology, in 1958.

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