Władysław Orlicz

Władysław Orlicz

(b. 24 May 1903, Okocim; d. 9 August 1990, Poznań)

Władysław Orlicz attended schools in Tarnów, Znojmo (in Moravia), and Lwów (Lviv), where in 1920 he passed his final high school examination at Secondary School no. II. He began studying at Lwów Polytechnic, but moved a year later to study mathematics at Jan Kazimierz University in the same city. He completed his studies in 1925, but was employed by the university from 1923, first as a demonstrator, and then as a research assistant. He gained his doctorate in 1928, under the formal supervision of Eustachy Żyliński, although he was in fact advised by Hugo Steinhaus. He completed further studies at the University of Göttingen in 1929–1930, and then became a senior assistant in the Faculty of Mechanics at Lwów Polytechnic. He gained his habilitation degree in 1934 at Jan Kazimierz University. In 1935 he became an assistant professor at the polytechnic with venia legendi (permission to lecture) at the university. In 1937 he became a professor in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science at Poznań University, taking over the chair in mathematics from Kazimierz Abramowicz. After spending the time of the Second World War in Lwów, in 1945 he returned to Poznań and again took up the chair in mathematics. He set up a school of functional analysis there. His research interests included mathematical and functional analysis, measure theory, orthogonal series, and the theory of summability. He published 170 papers, one monographic work, and two school textbooks. He supervised 39 successful doctoral candidates. His awards included the Polish Mathematical Society’s Stefan Banach Prize (1948), a National Prize Grade II (1952) and Grade I (1966), and the prize of the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation (1973). He also received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto (1974), Poznań University of Technology (1979), and Adam Mickiewicz University (1983). He was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the Polish Mathematical Society.

Roman Murawski

W. Wnuk, “Orlicz Władysław”, in: Luminarze nauki Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 1919–2019, ed. Z. Pilarczyk, Wyd. Nauk. UAM, Poznań 2019, pp. 507–510.
L. Maligranda, W. Wnuk, 100 lat matematyki na uniwersytecie w Poznaniu 1919–2019, Wyd. Nauk. UAM, Poznań 2021, pp. 330–351 and 476–477.
R. Duda, Matematycy XIX i XX wieku związani z Polską, Wyd. Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2012.
https://wmi.amu.edu.pl/zycie-naukowe/cykle-wykladow/wyklady-im.-wladyslawa-orlicza/biografia-prof.-wladyslawa-orlicza

For more information on the life and work of Professor Władysław Orlicz, see the page on the Władysław Orlicz Celebratory Lectures.