Distinguished graduates in mathematics of the Jagiellonian University in the interwar period. Part I: 1918-1926

Abstract

In this study, we present profiles of some distinguished graduates in mathematics of the Jagiellonian University from the years 1918-1939. We discuss their professional paths and scholarly achievements, instances of scientific collaboration, connections with other academic centers in Poland and worldwide, involvement in mathematical education and teacher training, as well as their later roles in Polish scientific and academic life. We also try to understand in what way they were shaped by their studies and how much of Kraków scientific traditions they continued. We find strong support for the claim that there was a distinct, diverse and deep mathematical stream in Kraków between the wars, rooted in classical disciplines like differential equations and geometry, but also open to new trends in mathematics. Part I concerns the graduates before the university reform, in 1918-1926. W niniejszej pracy przedstawiamy sylwetki niektórych wybitnych absolwentów Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego w zakresie matematyki z lat 1918-1939. Omawiamy ich drogi zawodowe i osiagniȩcia naukowe, przyk lady wspó lpracy naukowej, zwiazki z innymi ośrodkami akademickimi w Polsce i na świecie, zaangażowanie w nauczanie matematyki i kszta lcenie nauczycieli oraz ich późniejsze role w polskim życiu akademickim. Próbujemy także zrozumieć, w jaki sposób zostali oni ukszta ltowani przez swoje studia i na ile kontynuowali krakowskie tradycje naukowe. Znajdujemy mocne dowody na poparcie tezy, że w Krakowie miȩdzywojennym istnia l wyraźny, zróżnicowany i g lȩboki nurt matematyczny, zakorzeniony w dyscyplinach klasycznych takich jak równania różniczkowe i geometria, ale również otwarty na nowe trendy w matematyce. Czȩść I dotyczy absolwentów sprzed reformy kszta lcenia uniwersyteckiego, za lata 1918-1926. Jagiellonian University. ([13])On November 11, 1918 (the same day the armistice was signed in Compiègne), the Regency Council handed in the military command to Józef Pi lsudski. On November 14, it passed all remaining authority to him and dissolved itself. On November 16, Pi lsudski notified the Entente Powers about the emergence of the independent Polish state. The beginnings of the newly proclaimed Republic of Poland were turbulent. Even though the Great War was over, the state had to fight for its borders against the competing interests of Germans as well as Czechs, Slovaks, Lithuanians and Ukrainians, who also aspired to independence, and finally, in 1919-1921, to defend itself against the Bolshevik Russia. Many students interrupted their courses to volunteer for the military service. Internally, the emerging republic also faced many difficulties. It had to forge, among other things, a common legal, administrative, monetary and educational systems, in place of no longer relevant disparate systems of the three occupying powers. The existing Polish-language academic institutions-that is, the Jagiellonian University, the Lwów (Lvov) University and the Lwów Polytechnics-played a major role in these endeavors, educating the future forces to staff Polish ...