Wojciech Ratyński

Wojciech Ratyński (April 9, 1932 - November 17, 2007) was a Polish nuclear physicist and the director of the Andrzej Sołtan Institute of Nuclear Studies in Świerk from 1987 to 1996.

He was born in Ratyniec Stary, in the region of Podlasie. His alma mater was the University of Warsaw where he got his M. Sc. degree in physics from the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. He completed his Ph. D. in physics at the Institute of Nuclear Research (IBJ) in Świerk in 1964. The subject of his thesis was the study of gamma radiation from radiative capture of resonant neutrons.

In 1972 he received the D.Sc. degree in physics for his next thesis on circular polarization of gamma radiation. In 1972 Ratyński also invented a new method of enrichment of copper ores which became widely known in European and world industry.
In his scientific research at the Institute in Świerk Ratyński focused on studies of various phenomena induced by neutrons. These covered problems of slow and resonant neutron capture, the search for parity non-conservation in strong interactions studied by means of beams of polarized neutrons, measurements of gamma spectra of calcium isotopes produced in (n,γ) reactions and cross-section measurements of some nuclear reactions important in astrophysics. The results of these investigations were often cited in scientific literature and found practical application in Polish industry and medicine. In recognition of his scientific achievements the State Council awarded him the title of a professor of physical sciences in 1989.
Ratyński's didactic interests made him the first Polish translator of "Physics" by D. Halliday and R. Resnick which has become an immensely popular academic textbook for Polish students of natural, technical and medical sciences.
Throughout his career Ratyński cooperated with a number of notable research centres abroad: the Joint Institite for Nuclear Research in Dubna (USSR), Risø National Laboratory (Denmark), ECN Petten (The Netherlands), KFZ Karlsruhe (Germany), ILL Grenoble (France)and Oak Ridge (USA). This cooperation resulted in many long-lasting research projects and about 40 papers published in Polish and foreign scientific journals.

In 1987 he was appointed the director of the Institute in Świerk (renamed the Andrzej Sołtan Institute of Nuclear Studies in 1982). Re-elected in 1991, he directed the Institute until the end of the second term of office in 1996. At the same time he was, among other honourable functions, an active member of the Council of the National Atomic Energy Agency.

Until his retirement in 2002 he initiated and pursued a number of research and development projects, notably the Isotopes and Accelerators project, and the Mazovian Institute of Technology project. The most promising ideas and topics that appeared in those projects are continued by his successors, like in the recent activities to launch the Science and Technology Park in Świerk.

References

pl:Wojciech Ratyński