Optics Division, Faculty of Physics
| Institute: | Warsaw University of Technology |
|---|---|
| Address: |
Koszykowa 75 00-662 Warszawa Poland |
| Website: | http://www.if.pw.edu.pl/~opto/ |
| Contact person | Wolinski Tomasz R. |
| Presentation: | FWUT.pdf (834.06 kB) |
Description
Warsaw University of Technology is one of the largest institutions of higher education in Central Europe. In 2001 Warsaw University of Technology celebrated its 175th anniversary. The School of Technology in Warsaw, which was the predecessor of the University, was first established in 1826.
Warsaw University of Technology has 16 faculties, among them the Faculty of Physics.
The University offers graduate and postgraduate courses in engineering in numerous fields of advanced technology, leading to B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees. In six faculties English language courses are conducted for about 200 foreign students. All faculties also have right to confer D.Sc. degree. Moreover 50 different full-time evening or extramural postgraduate courses are offered. They are not only restricted to technology but also concern management and lifetime continuous professional education.
Since the end of World War II, the Warsaw University of Technology has had ambition of maintaining and developing international cooperation and to be internationally recognised. Despite the well-known past system difficulties, the University kept quite efficient “banned” contacts with the Western countries. Agreements and visits concerning research cooperation, participation in international conferences and symposia with accepted papers, and finally contracts as visiting professors were quite frequent and allowed to keep our research and education on a level close to the requirements of highly developed countries.
Since 1990 the European Union educational and research assistance programmes such as TEMPUS, later COPERNICUS, have had a great impact on the internationalisation of all University's activities.
Participation of the University in the TEMPUS programme reached 76 JEP projects (in this 24 co-ordinated by the University employees), 3 JEN projects (in 2 as co-ordinator), 22 CME projects (in 12 as co-ordinator) and 125 IMG projects. In the LEONARDO da VINCI programme the University was involved in: 7 pilot projects (in 3 as a co-ordinator) and in 44 mobility projects (2 as a co-ordinator). In the frame of SOCRATES- ERASMUS project every year over 150 students of our University go abroad to spend study periods and 50 university teachers to give lectures.
The University has had signed 64 contracts within the INCO-COPERNICUS, PHARE, EUREKA and NATO Programmes. From the beginning of the Fifth Framework Programme there have been submitted more than 120 proposals from the University, a quarter of them was qualified for funding from the European Commission. Two our Professors are co-ordinators of the Projects within 5FP.
In the last two years the University won the third position among the best 75 Polish universities and the first place among the 20 of universities of technology.
Faculty of Physics, FWUT - historical background
The Faculty of Physics was established in 1999, however the tradition of physics at the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) is 100-years old. The first formal Chair of Physics was created in1919 and the independent Chairs existed up to 1965 when the Institute of Physics was founded. Ten years later this Institute and the Institute of Mathematics formed together the Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, which existed up to 1999.
The Faculty of Physics is located in the historical Building of Physics in the Central Campus of the University. The construction of this Building, where the first physics lectures were given by Professor Wiktor Biernacki, took place in 1899-1901. Among distinguished scientists who developed physics at this University were: prof. Mieczysław Wolfke (1883-1947) – forerunner of holography and the discoverer of superfluid helium II, Professor. Cezary Pawłowski (1895-1965) – co-worker of Maria Skłodowska-Curie, and Professor Szczepan Szczeniowski (1896-1979) – author of known series of textbooks in physics, father of Polish school of ferromagnetism, co-founder of the Institute of Physics and its first Director.
Research work in optics at FWUT has been initiated in late 60-ties by Professor Bohdan Karczewski, Director of the Institute of Physics and also Head of its Optics Division. Along with Professor Jan Petykiewicz and their younger co-workers: Katarzyna Chalasinska-Macukow and Tomasz Szoplik (presently Professors of Physics at Warsaw University), all of them belonged to the informal “School of Optics” associated with the world-class scientist Professor Wojciech Rubinowicz – one of the founders of quantum theory of radiation and theory of diffraction (well known:”Rubinowicz-Kirchhoff diffraction integral”).
Early theoretical investigations were concentrated on classical and quantum theory of light coherence, holography and theory of diffraction. In 70-ties, experimental research on optical processing and holography has been originated. Since 1982, the Fibre Optics Research Group within the Optics Division has been created, headed up to the date by Dr. Andrzej Domanski and research activities in fibre optic and waveguided optoelectronics, magneto-optical and polarization phenomena, linear and nonlinear optics, optics of liquid crystals, optical fibre sensors have been undertaken. Since 1997, Optics Division is headed by Professor Tomasz Wolinski a specialist in polarization phenomena in optical fibres and sensors, and also in optical liquid crystalline materials.
The Faculty of Physics has formal agreements concerning scientific cooperation with the following centres, in the field of NEMO activities:
VUB Brussels / TONA / Belgium (Birefringent photonic fibres)
University of Quebec at Hull / Canada (Fibre optics polarisation and stress sensors),
Brno Technical University / Czech Republic (Investigations in the field of Fourier, non-linear and fibre optics),
Ostrava Technical University / Czech Republic (Properties of coherent light, holography, Fourier optics and diffraction).
