Jagiellonian University - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For several academies alternatively called "Krakow Academy" or "Cracow University", see Education in Kraków

Education in Kraków

Higher Education in Kraków takes place in 10 university-level institutions with about 170,000 students and 10,000 faculty, as well as in a number of non-public colleges.- Public institutions of higher education :* Jagiellonian University...

The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great

Casimir III of Poland

Casimir III the Great , last King of Poland from the Piast dynasty , was the son of King Władysław I the Elbow-high and Hedwig of Kalisz.-Biography:...

in Kazimierz

Kazimierz

Kazimierz is a historical district of Kraków , best known for being home to a Jewish community from the 14th century until the Second World War.-Early history:...

(district of Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

). It is the oldest university in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, the second oldest university in Central Europe

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

and one of the oldest universities in the world.

The university fell upon hard times when the occupation of Kraków by Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

during the Partitions of Poland

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...

threatened its existence. In 1817, soon after the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw

Duchy of Warsaw

The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...

the university was renamed as Jagiellonian University to commemorate Poland's Jagiellonian dynasty, which first revived the Kraków University in the past. In 2006, The Times Higher Education Supplement

The Times Higher Education Supplement

The Times Higher Education , formerly Times Higher Education Supplement , is a weekly British magazine based in London reporting specifically on news and other issues related to higher education...

ranked Jagiellonian University as Poland's top university.

History

In the mid-14th century, King Casimir III of Poland

Casimir III of Poland

Casimir III the Great , last King of Poland from the Piast dynasty , was the son of King Władysław I the Elbow-high and Hedwig of Kalisz.-Biography:...

realized that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could codify the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to found an institution of higher learning in Poland were rewarded when Pope Urban V

Pope Urban V

Pope Urban V , born Guillaume Grimoard, was Pope from 1362 to 1370.-Biography:Grimoard was a native of Grizac in Languedoc . He became a Benedictine and a doctor in Canon Law, teaching at Montpellier and Avignon...

granted him permission to set up an academy in Krakow. A royal charter of foundation was issued on 12 May 1364, and a simultaneous document was issued by the City Council granting privileges to the Studium Generale

Studium Generale

Studium generale is the old customary name for a Medieval university.- Definition :There is no clear official definition of what constituted a Studium generale...

. The King provided funding for one chair in liberal arts

Liberal arts

The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...

, two in Medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, three in Canon Law

Canon law

Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...

and five in Roman Law

Roman law

Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the 7th century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve...

, funded by a quarterly payment taken from the proceeds of the royal monopoly on the salt mines at Wieliczka

Wieliczka

-External links:***...

.
The Cracow Academy's development stalled upon the death of King Casimir, but the institution was re-founded in 1400 by King Władysław Jagiełło

Jogaila

Jogaila, later 'He is known under a number of names: ; ; . See also: Jogaila : names and titles. was Grand Duke of Lithuania , king consort of Kingdom of Poland , and sole King of Poland . He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis...

and his wife Saint Jadwiga

Jadwiga of Poland

Jadwiga was monarch of Poland from 1384 to her death. Her official title was 'king' rather than 'queen', reflecting that she was a sovereign in her own right and not merely a royal consort. She was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, the daughter of King Louis I of Hungary and Elizabeth of...

, the daughter of the King Louis of Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

and Poland

Poland

. The queen donated all of her personal jewelry to the academy, allowing it to enrol 203 students. The faculties of astronomy, law and theology attracted eminent scholars: for example, Stanisław of Skarbimierz, Paweł Włodkowic, Jan of Głogów, and Albert Brudzewski

Albert Brudzewski

Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar , Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar (of Brudzewo), Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar (of Brudzewo), Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski (in Latin, Albertus de Brudzewo;...

, who from 1491 to 1495 was one of Nicolaus Copernicus's

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....

teachers. The university was the first university in Europe to establish independent chairs in Mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

and Astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

Throughout the history of the University, thousands of students from all over Poland, Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Hungary

Hungary

, Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

have studied there. In the second half of the 15th century, over 40% of students came from outside the Kingdom of Poland. For several centuries, virtually the entire intellectual elite of Poland was educated at the university.

The first chancellor of the University was Piotr Wysz, and the first professors were Czech

Czech people

Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...

s, Germans and Poles, many of them trained at the Charles University in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

in Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

. By 1520 Greek philology was introduced by Constanzo Claretti and Wenzel von Hirschberg; Hebrew was also taught. The golden era of the University of Krakow took place during the Polish Renaissance, between 1500 and 1535, when it was attended by 3,215 students in the first decade of the 16th century. As the university's popularity declined in later centuries, this record was not surpassed until the late 18th century.

In 1846, after the Kraków Uprising

Kraków Uprising

The Kraków Uprising of February 1846 was an attempt, led by Edward Dembowski, to incite a Polish fight for national independence. Even though most of Poland was part of the Russian Empire, the Polish risings were conducted mainly in Prussia and in the Austrian Empire.-History:Most of the...

, the city and its university became part of the Austrian Empire

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

. The threat of a closure of the University was dissipated in 1847 by the Austrian Emperor's

Ferdinand I of Austria

Ferdinand I was Emperor of Austria, President of the German Confederation, King of Hungary and Bohemia , as well as associated dominions from the death of his father, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, until his abdication after the Revolutions of 1848.He married Maria Anna of Savoy, the sixth child...

decree to maintain it. New buildings were added, including the Collegium Novum

Collegium Novum

The Collegium Novum is the Neo-Gothic main building of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, built in 1873-1887. Based on a design by architect Feliks Księżarski to match the oldest building of the University, it was opened for the 500th anniversary of the University's foundation...

, which opened in 1887.

On November 6, 1939, following the Nazi invasion of Poland, 184 professors were arrested and deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...

during an operation codenamed Sonderaktion Krakau

Sonderaktion Krakau

Sonderaktion Krakau was the codename for a German operation against professors and academics from the University of Kraków and other Kraków universities at the beginning of World War II....

. The university, along with the rest of Poland's higher and secondary education, was shut down for the remainder of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The faculty was later suppressed by the Communists in 1954.

In 2000, a new complex of university buildings, the so-called Third Campus, began construction; completion is planned for 2015. Public funds earmarked for the project amounted to 946.5 million zlotys, or 240 million euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

s. The Third Campus borders the LifeScience Park managed by the Jagiellonian Centre of Innovation. In 2007, the university's administrative offices, including those of the Rector and Deans, were located in the historic Collegium Novum

Collegium Novum

Notable alumni

Saint John Cantius
John Cantius
Saint John Cantius was a renowned Polish priest, Scholastic philosopher, physicist and theologian. He is also known as John of Kanty or John of Kanti.-Biography:...

1390–1473. Scholastic; theologian
Jan Długosz 1415–1480; historian
Laurentius Corvinus
Laurentius Corvinus
Laurentius Corvinus was a Silesian scholar who lectured as an ‘extraordinary’ professor at the University of Krakow when Nicolaus Copernicus began to study there...

1465–1527; humanist
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...

; lecturer at the University
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....

1473–1543; astronomer; promoter of heliocentrism
Heliocentrism
Heliocentrism, or heliocentricism, is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around a stationary Sun at the center of the universe. The word comes from the Greek . Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth at the center...
Francysk Skaryna 1485?–1540?; pioneer of the Old Belarusian language
Old Belarusian language
Old Belarusian was a historic East Slavic language, written and spoken at least in the 14th–17th century, and reported spoken as late as the very beginning of the 19th century, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, probably...

(historically Old Lithuanian Language
Old Belarusian language
Old Belarusian was a historic East Slavic language, written and spoken at least in the 14th–17th century, and reported spoken as late as the very beginning of the 19th century, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later in the East Slavic territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, probably...

); first to print a book in an Eastern Slavic language (1517 in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

)
Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski
Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski
Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski was a Polish Renaissance scholar, humanist and theologian, called "the father of Polish democracy." His book De Republica emendanda was widely read and praised across most of Renaissance Europe.-Life:Modrzewski was born in Wolbórz Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (ca....

1503?–1572; diplomat; political thinker; religious thinker
Marcin Kromer
Marcin Kromer
Marcin Kromer or Martin Cromer was Prince-Bishop of Warmia , a cartographer, diplomat and historian in Poland and later in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...

1512–1589; historian; Prince-
Prince-Bishop
A Prince-Bishop is a bishop who is a territorial Prince of the Church on account of one or more secular principalities, usually pre-existent titles of nobility held concurrently with their inherent clerical office...

Bishop of Warmia
Jan Kochanowski
Jan Kochanowski
Jan Kochanowski was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to Polish literary language.He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz, and the greatest Slavic poet, prior to the 19th century.-Life:Kochanowski was born at...

1530–1584; Polish nominal poet
Polish literature
Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages, used in Poland over the centuries, have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Yiddish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German and...
Bartosz Paprocki
Bartosz Paprocki
Bartholomew Paprocki was a Polish and Czech writer, historiographer, translator, poet, herald and pioneer in the Polish and Czech genealogy.-Biography:...

c.1543 – 1614; writer; historiographer; translator; poet; genealogist
Stanisław Koniecpolski 1590?–1646; military commander; military politician; Grand Hetman of the Crown
John III Sobieski 1629–1696; military leader; monarch of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...

; victor of the Battle of Vienna
Battle of Vienna
The Battle of Vienna took place on 11 and 12 September 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months...
Wincenty Pol
Wincenty Pol
Wincenty Pol was a Polish poet and geographer.-Life:Pol was born in Lublin , to Franz Pohl , a German in the Austrian service, and his wife Eleonora Longchamps de Berier, from a French family living in Poland. Pol fought in the Polish army in the November 1830 Uprising and participated in the 1848...

1807–1872; poet; geographer
Ignacy Łukasiewicz 1822 – 1882; pharmacist
Pharmacist
Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...

; deviser of the first method of distilling kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...

from seep oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
Carl Menger
Carl Menger
Carl Menger was the founder of the Austrian School of economics, famous for contributing to the development of the theory of marginal utility, which contested the cost-of-production theories of value, developed by the classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo.- Biography :Menger...

1840–1921; economist; lawyer; founder of the Austrian School
Austrian School
The Austrian School of economics is a heterodox school of economic thought. It advocates methodological individualism in interpreting economic developments , the theory that money is non-neutral, the theory that the capital structure of economies consists of heterogeneous goods that have...

of economics
Karol Olszewski
Karol Olszewski
Karol Stanisław Olszewski was a Polish chemist, mathematician and physicist.-Life:Olszewski was a graduate of Kazimierz Brodziński High School in Tarnów . He studied at Kraków's Jagiellonian University in the departments of mathematics and physics, and chemistry and biology...

1846–1915; physicist; chemist; the first to liquefy oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

, nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...

and carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

from the atmosphere
Wacław Sierpiński 1882–1969; mathematician
Bronisław Malinowski 1884–1942; anthropologist
Oskar Halecki
Oskar Halecki
Oskar Halecki was a Polish historian, social and Catholic activist.As a historian, Halecki was an expert on medieval history of Poland and Lithuania, and history of Byzantine Empire....

1891–1973; historian, social and Catholic activist
Ivo Andric
Ivo Andric
Ivan "Ivo" Andrić was a Yugoslav novelist, short story writer, and the 1961 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire...

1892–1975; Nobel laureate
Henryk Sławik 1894–1944; diplomat; designator of a Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....

for the rescue of Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Tadeusz Pankiewicz
Tadeusz Pankiewicz
Tadeusz Pankiewicz , was a Polish Roman Catholic pharmacist, operating in the Kraków Ghetto during the Nazi German occupation of Poland...

1908–1993; pharmacist; Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....

who aided Jews in the Kraków Ghetto
Kraków Ghetto
The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the General Government territory for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation of Polish Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II...
Józef Cyrankiewicz
Józef Cyrankiewicz
Józef Cyrankiewicz was a Polish Socialist, after 1948 Communist political figure. He served as premier of the People's Republic of Poland between 1947 and 1952, and again between 1954 and 1970...

1911–1989; communist politician; prime minister of Poland 1947–1970
George Zarnecki
George Zarnecki
George Jerzy Zarnecki, CBE, FBA, FSA was a Polish-English Professor of Art history. He was a scholar of Medieval art and English Romanesque sculpture, an area of study where he did pioneering research....

1915–2008; art historian specializing in English Romanesque art
Romanesque art
Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th century, or later, depending on region. The preceding period is increasingly known as the Pre-Romanesque...
Antoni Kępiński
Antoni Kepinski
Antoni Kępiński was a Polish psychiatrist.He attended the Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School. In 1936 he entered the Medical Faculty of the Jagiellonian University. In 1939, he interrupted his studies before graduation and volunteered for the Polish Army to defend his country from the German...

1918–1972; psychiatrist
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

(Karol Wojtyła) 1920–2005
Zbigniew Czajkowski
Zbigniew Czajkowski
Zbigniew Czajkowski is a fencing coach. Czajkowski has been dubbed "Father of the Polish School" of fencing. He has been coach to many champions, including Egon Franke - the first Pole to earn an Olympic gold medal in fencing....

("Father of the Polish School of fencing") b. 1921
Stanisław Lem 1921–2006; writer
Bohdan Lepky
Bohdan Lepky
Bohdan Lepky, pen name: Marko Murava was a prominent Ukrainian writer, poet, scholar, public figure, artist and patriot.It seems symbolic today that the future writer was born on November 9, 1872, in the picturesque village of Zhukiv, in the same house where the famous Polish insurgent Bogdan...

; writer
Wisława Szymborska b. 1923; poet; 1996 Nobel laureate in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
Norman Davies
Norman Davies
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :...

b. 1939; British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

historian
Krzysztof Zanussi
Krzysztof Zanussi
Krzysztof Zanussi, is a Polish producer and film director.He is a professor of European film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland where he conducts a summer workshop...

b. 1939; film director
Leo Sternbach
Leo Sternbach
Leo Henryk Sternbach was a Polish-Jewish chemist who is credited with discovering benzodiazepines, main class of tranquilizers.-Biography:...

1908–2005; chemist; inventor of the benzodiazepine
Benzodiazepine
A benzodiazepine is a psychoactive drug whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring...
Paulo Szot
Paulo Szot
Paulo Szot is a Brazilian opera baritone singer and actor. In 2008, he made his Broadway debut as Emile De Becque in a revival of South Pacific. He won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance in the musical, becoming the first Brazilian to receive...

born c. 1970; opera singer; Broadway musical theatre actor
Bat-Erdeniin Batbayar born c. 1954 politician, political analyst and writer.
Kazimierz Papée
Kazimierz Papée
Dr. Kazimierz Papée was the ambassador from Poland to the Holy See from 1939 to 1958, during and after World War II...

1889 – 1979; Polish Ambassador to the Holy See 1939–1958
Andrzej Łobaczewski
Andrzej Łobaczewski
Andrzej Łobaczewski was a Polish psychiatrist who synthesized the research of a group of underground Eastern European scientists that included Kazimierz Dąbrowski, Stefan Szuman, and Stefan Blachowski, among many other anonymous contributors...

1921 – 2007; psychologist who studied totalitarianism and ponerology
Ponerology
Ponerology is the name given by Polish psychiatrist Andrzej Łobaczewski to an interdisciplinary study of the causes of periods of social injustice. This discipline makes use of data from psychology, sociology, philosophy, and history to account for such phenomena as aggressive war, ethnic...
Czeslaw Olech b. 1931; mathematician
Mietek Pemper
Mietek Pemper
Mieczysław "Mietek" Pemper was a Polish-born German Holocaust survivor. Pemper helped compile and type Oskar Schindler's now-famous list, which saved 1,200 people from being killed in the Holocaust during World War II....

1920 – 2011; studied Law; Holocaust survivor who compiled Schindler's list

Notable professors

Stanisław of Skarbimierz (1360–1431), rector, theologian, lawyer
Paweł Włodkowic (1370–1435), lawyer, diplomat and politician, representative of Poland on the Council of Constance
Council of Constance
The Council of Constance is the 15th ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418. The council ended the Three-Popes Controversy, by deposing or accepting the resignation of the remaining Papal claimants and electing Pope Martin V.The Council also condemned and...
Albert Brudzewski
Albert Brudzewski
Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar , Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar (of Brudzewo), Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar (of Brudzewo), Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski (in Latin, Albertus de Brudzewo;...

(1445–1497), astronomer and mathematician
Maciej Miechowita
Maciej Miechowita
Maciej Miechowita was a Polish renaissance scholar, professor of Jagiellonian University, historian, chronicler, geographer, medical doctor , alchemist, astrologist and canon in Cracow.He studied at the...

(1457–1523), historian, chronicler, geographer, medic
Jan Brożek
Jan Brozek
Jan Brożek was a Polish polymath: a mathematician, astronomer, physician, poet, writer, musician and rector of the Kraków Academy.-Life:...

(1585–1652), mathematician, physician and astronomer
Henryk Jordan
Henryk Jordan
Henryk Jordan , was a Polish philanthropist, physician and pioneer of physical education in Poland...

(1842–1907), professor of obstetrics
Obstetrics
Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...
Walery Jaworski
Walery Jaworski
Walery Jaworski , was one of the pioneers of gastroenterology in Poland.In 1899 he described bacteria living in the human stomach that he named "Vibrio rugula". He speculated that they were responsible for stomach ulcers, gastric cancer and achylia. It was one of the first observations of...

(1849–1924), gastroenterologist
Władysław Natanson (1864–1937), physicist
Stanisław Estreicher (1869–1939), founder of the Jagiellonian University Museum
Tadeusz Estreicher
Tadeusz Estreicher
Tadeusz Estreicher was an Austrian-born Polish chemist, historian and cryogenics pioneer who spent most of his career in Austria and the German Empire.-Life:...

(1871–1952), pioneer in cryogenics
Cryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
Marian Smmhowski (1872–1917), pioneer of statistical physics
Statistical physics
Statistical physics is the branch of physics that uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the mathematical tools for dealing with large populations and approximations, in solving physical problems. It can describe a wide variety of fields with an inherently stochastic...
Bohdan Lepky
Bohdan Lepky
Bohdan Lepky, pen name: Marko Murava was a prominent Ukrainian writer, poet, scholar, public figure, artist and patriot.It seems symbolic today that the future writer was born on November 9, 1872, in the picturesque village of Zhukiv, in the same house where the famous Polish insurgent Bogdan...

(1872–1941), literature
Stanisław Kutrzeba (1876–1946), rector, General Secretary of the Polish Academy of Learning
Polish Academy of Learning
The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences or Polish Academy of Learning , headquartered in Kraków, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland having the nature of an academy of sciences....
Andrzej Gawroński
Andrzej Gawronski
Andrzej Gawroński was a Polish Indologist, linguist and polyglot...

(1885–1927), founder of the Polish Oriental Society
Polish Oriental Society
Polish Oriental Society a society of Polish orientalists. Founded in 1922. Currently 131 members. Its statutory aims are: to contribute to the development of oriental studies in Poland through research and support of research on peoples of Asia and Africa. President: Marek Mejor.Address: 00-927...

, master of Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
Stanisław Kot (1885–1975), historian and politician
Tadeusz Sulimirski
Tadeusz Sulimirski
Tadeusz Sulimirski was a Polish-born historian and archaeologist, who emigrated to the United Kingdom soon after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. He is best known for his works on the ancient Sarmatians....

(1898–1983), historian and archaeologist, experts on the ancient Sarmatians
Sarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
Stanisław Smreczyński(1899–1975) zoologist.
Henryk Niewodniczański
Henryk Niewodniczanski
Henryk Niewodniczański was a Polish physicist, professor at the Jagiellonian University and the creator and director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Cracow....

(1900–1968), physicist

Enrollment

As of 2008, the university has 52,445 students (including 1,612 degree students from abroad) and 3,657 academic staff. About 1,130 international non-degree students were enrolled in 2007. Programmes of study are offered in 48 disciplines and 93 specialisations. The university has an exchange program with The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

and its Columbus School of Law

Columbus School of Law

The Columbus School of Law, also known as CUA Law, is the law school of The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C..Over 900 Juris Doctor students attend CUA Law. Incoming classes are typically composed of two to three hundred students, including day and night programs. Around 3,500...

. It also hosts a "semester-abroad" program with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

The University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point is a public university located in Stevens Point, Wisconsin...

and the University of Guelph

University of Guelph

The University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the Macdonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College...

Library

The university's Jagiellonian Library

Jagiellonian Library

Jagiellonian Library is the library of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and with almost 6.7 million volumes, one of the biggest libraries in Poland, serving as a public library, university library and part of the Polish national library system...

(Biblioteka Jagiellońska) is one of Poland's largest, with almost 6.5 million volumes. It has a large collection of medieval manuscripts, including Copernicus'

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....

De Revolutionibus

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus...

and the Balthasar Behem Codex

Balthasar Behem Codex

The Balthasar Behem Codex is a collection of the privileges and statutes of the city of Kraków. Compiled in 1505, the codex was named for the chancellor at the time, Balthasar Behem. The book's text is in Latin...

.

The library also has an extensive collection of underground political literature (so-called drugi obieg or samizdat

Samizdat

Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...

) from Poland's period of Communist rule between 1945 and 1989.

Departments

The university is divided into 15 faculties:

Law and Administration
Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University
Faculty of Law and Administration is the oldest unit of the Jagiellonian University. In 1364, when the University was established, 8 out of 11 chairs were devoted to legal sciences. At the beginning only courses in Canon Law and Roman Law were available...
Medicine
Jagiellonian university medical college
Latin : Universitas Jagellonica Cracoviensis Motto Plus ratio quam vis Established 1364 University Jagiellonian University School Type Public Rector Prof...
Pharmacy and Medical Analysis
Health Care
Philosophy
History
Philology
Polish Language and Literature
Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science
Mathematics and Computer Science
Chemistry
Biology and Earth Sciences
Management and Social Communication
International and Political Studies
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology

Student associations

In 1851, the university's first student scientific association was founded. Now, over 70 student scientific associations exist at the Jagiellonian University. Usually, their purpose is to promote students' scientific achievements by organizing lecture sessions, science excursion

Excursion

An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other purposes....

s, and international student conferences, such as the International Workshop for Young Mathematicians, which is organized by the Zaremba Association of Mathematicians.

The links below provide further information on student activities at the Jagiellonian: