Citizenship Polish | Name Wlodzimierz Ptak | |
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Born November 2, 1928 ( 1928-11-02 ) Krakow Occupation immunologist
microbiologist | ||
Włodzimierz Wojciech Ptak, M.D. (born 2 November 1928) is a Polish immunologist and microbiologist, professor of medical sciences, retired professor at the Institute of Immunology of the Jagiellonian University Medical College, one of the most frequently cited Polish scientists in the field of biomedicine after 1965, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Polish Academy of Learning, who was also a visiting professor at Yale University for several years.
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Life and work
He was born in Kraków as the son of an engineer Wojciech Ptak and Maria Krawczyk, grandson of Franciszek Ptak (1859–1936), an innkeeper, peasant movement activist and member of Diet of Galicia. His younger sister Wanda Ptak-Kollat (1930–1984) was a master engineer in roads and bridges.
During the German occupation of Kraków he was a student of a trade school at Brzozowa Street, he also took secret Latin lessons from professor Pardiak. He attended Jan III Sobieski High School but due to the conflict with a math teacher in the final award class he moved to Henryk Sienkiewicz High School and there he passed matura exam in 1946. In the same year he started studies at the Medical Academy in Kraków, from which he graduated in 1952.
He obtained Ph.D. in pathology in 1969 and professorship in 1976. From 1974 until 1999 he was a visiting professor at the Department of Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine at Yale University, where altogether he spent more than seven years. Between 1978–1981 he was the Vice-Rector of the Medical Academy in Kraków, and in the years 1989–1995 the Secretary of the Medical Faculty of the Polish Academy of Learning. He is the co-author of a textbok Podstawy immunologii (Polish: Basics of immunology, first edition in 1976).
He is a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (correspondent member in 1986, real member in 1998) and Polish Academy of Learning (since 1989), he is also an honorary member of the Polish Immunologist Society.
He was decorated with a Knight's Cross (1977) and a Commander's Cross of Polonia Restituta (1997). Beside that he received several awards, among which were: Award of the Scientific Secretary of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1973, 1984), Jędrzej Śniadecki Award (1978), Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award (1981); Award of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, first degree (1982), State Prize (1984), Meritorious Teacher of the People's Republic of Poland (1984), „Gloria Medicinae” Medal of the Polish Medical Society (1992), Prime Minister of Poland Award (1996), Minister of Higher Education of Poland Award (1999), Jagiellonian Laurel (1999), Minister of Health of Poland Award, first degree (seven times, 1973–2009), „Honoris Gratia” Badge (2016).
He played a small role in a 2016 short film Hens (Kury).
He is an atheist. Among his hobbies interests are history and philosophy. He was married three times and had one daughter in the second marriage.