Mathwar/Personlist/Lukasiewicz Jan
Jan Lukasiewicz
(* December 21st 1978 in Lvov, Austria, † February 13th 1956 in Dublin)
His major mathematical work centred on mathematical logic. He thought innovatively about traditional propositional logic, the principle of non-contradiction and the law of excluded middle.
Life
Since the partition of Poland, Russia had controlled that part of the country called Congress Poland, which included Warsaw. The University of Warsaw had been closed and only a Russian language university operated there. At the outbreak of World War I, the Central Powers (Germany and Austria- Hungary) attacked Congress Poland. In August 1915 the Russian forces withdrew from Warsaw. Germany and Austria-Hungary took control of most of the country and a German governor general was installed in Warsaw. One of the first moves after the Russian withdrawal was the refounding of the University of Warsaw and it began operating as a Polish university in November 1915.
Lukasiewicz was invited to the new University of Warsaw when it reopened in 1915. It was an exciting time in Poland and a new Kingdom of Poland was declared on 5 November 1916. Lukasiewicz was Polish Minister of Education in 1919 and a professor at Warsaw University from 1920 to 1939. During this period between the wars Lukasiewicz was twice rector of Warsaw University.
Lukasiewicz and his wife fled from Poland and in 1946 they were in exile in Belgium when he was offered a chair by the University of Dublin in Ireland.