Person: Ślebarski, Tadeusz Boleslaw
Tadeusz Ślebarski was a Polish-born astronomer who taught for many years at the University of St Andrews.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Władysław Ślebarski was born in Brzeszcze, Poland, on 13 July 1886.
- Tadeusz then entered the Jagiellonian University in Kraków where he began his studies in mathematics and astronomy.
- The professor of astronomy at the Jagiellonian University was Tadeusz Banachiewicz (1882-1954) who had been appointed to the chair in 1919.
- Banachiewicz was delighted with his young pupil Tadeusz, who was called up for military service in 1938 before completing his studies.
- Tadeusz escaped from Poland while Banachiewicz was arrested by the Nazis, along with other members of the Faculty of the Jagiellonian University, on 6 November 1939.
- Quite how Tadeusz managed to escape to France is not known but he was evacuated from France in 1940 and arrived in St Andrews with other members of the Polish Army and stationed in the St Andrews area for the remainder of the war.
- In November 1943 Tadeusz entered the University of St Andrews and was awarded an M.A. in 1945.
- Tadeusz graduated with an honours degree in 1947 after an outstanding performance in astronomy.
- At the beginning of the academic year 1947-48 Tadeusz began his studies as a research student in astronomy but six months later, in April 1948, he was appointed as an Assistant in Astronomy after the first assistant, Ian Campbell, resigned to take a position with the Admiralty.
- Tadeusz learnt the skills of astronomical photography from Cisar and began his own observing programme in January 1954.
- Tadeusz observed asteroids, or minor planets.
- A quite difficult situation arose for Tadeusz since he had been very close to Freundlich and extremely grateful to him for appointing him as an assistant in 1948.
- Stibbs, worrying that Freundlich was still exerting an influence on the Department of Astronomy, insisted that Tadeusz had no further contact with Freundlich.
- In 1962 Stibbs encouraged Tadeusz to apply for a research fellowship at Yale University Observatory in the United States.
- Tadeusz was promoted to Senior Lecturer in October 1966 and continued to hold this position until he retired in 1979.
- Tadeusz was an extremely clear lecturer with an obvious love for mathematics and its applications to astronomy.
Born 14 August 1914, Komorowice, Poland. Died 7 February 2003, Kirkcaldy, Scotland.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Astronomy, Origin Poland
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References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
