On 22 March 2019, Professor Piotr Wolański ended his term of office as Chairman of the Space and Satellite Research Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He held this function for 16 years (four consecutive four-year terms, since 2002).
„At that time Poland was admitted to the European Space Agency, the creation of the Polish Space Agency and also a very dynamic development of space activity in our country took place. Four Polish Artificial Satellites of the Earth, two built by students from the Students’ Space Association of the Warsaw University of Technology (which I have been taking care of since its establishment for 20 years) and two scientific satellites from the BRITE series: LEM and Hevelius were placed in orbits of the Earth. These as well as many other undertakings and achievements would not have been possible without the active support of members of the Committee, Parliamentary Team for Space and many other people from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Ministries of Economy, and now the Ministry of Enterprise and Technology, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defence and many other people gathered around the broadly understood space activity in our country” – said Professor Piotr Wolański.
The new Chairman of the Space and Satellite Research Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences was appointed by the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Professor Jerzy Duszyński, Professor Zbigniew Kłos from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, while Professor Piotr Wolański was appointed by the members of the Committee as Honorary Chairman of the Committee.
The Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences, by Resolution No. 13/2019 of 19 February 2019, appointed Mr. Leszek Loroch, PhD. Eng. and Mr. Adam Okniński, PhD. Eng. from the Institute of Aviation as members of the Committee for Space and Satellite Research at the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the term of office 2019-2022.
Mr. Leszek Loroch, PhD, Eng., Director of the Center of Space Technology of the Institute of Aviation, was elected II Vice President of the Space and Satellite Research Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Mr. Adam Okniński, PhD. Eng., Head of the Department of Space Technology at the Institute of Aviation, was entrusted with the creation of the Sections of the launching systems of the Space and Satellite Research Committee of the Polish Academy.
We congratulate Professor Piotr Wolański on his achievements so far and wish him further successes.
We would also like to congratulate the newly elected members of the Space and Satellite Research Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences and wish them numerous successes in the new term of office that is beginning.
