Prof. Kazimierz Wiatr to head the Polish Senate Science Committee

During the second sitting of the 11th term Senate, Prof. Kazimierz Wiatr was appointed as the Chairman of the new Senate Science Committee.

Over the last few terms, Prof. Wiatr headed the Science, Education, and Sports Committee (in terms 6th-10th). In this term, its scope was divided, creating three separate committees: Science Committee, Education Committee, and Sports Committee.

The Science Committee is one of 20 permanent senate committees. Its activity focuses on matters related to, among others, the organisation and development of scientific research, the organisation of scientific institutions, and scientific cooperation with foreign countries.

Prof. Kazimierz Wiatr was a senator of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th term of the Polish Senate.

He was born on February 18, 1955 in Krakow. In 1980, he graduate from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering at the AGH University. In 1987, he obtained a PhD degree, in 1999 - the degree of habilitated doctor, and in 2002 - the title of professor.

Since 1980, he has been working at the AGH University of Science and Technology as a professor in the field of computer sciences and electronics and head of the Flexible Configuration Calculation Systems Team. Since 2004, he has served as the Director of the Cyfronet Academic Computer Centre. Since 2006, he has chaired the Consortium Council of PIONIER - Polish Optical Internet, and since 2008, also the PL-Grid programme (Polish Infrastructure for Supporting Computational Science in the European Research Space), under which the largest supercomputers in Poland were built, repeatedly placed among the top 100 fastest computers in the world.

Since 1980, he has been associated with Tarnów, where he conducted research and implementation works on computer control of technological production lines and industrial robots at Fabryka Silników Elektrycznych TAMEL, manufacturer of electric motors. Thanks to his efforts, PIONIER - a high throughput academic Internet network − was installed in Tarnów. Its node is located in the State Higher Vocational School in Tarnów. He initiated the establishment of the Tarnów Scientific Society and the Perły Tarnowa awards. He organises conferences on modern technology 'Tarnów i Nowoczesne Technologie'.

He specialises in computer-assisted processes, multi-processor systems, programmable devices and flexible configuration calculation systems. He has led numerous research projects, i.a. based on grants from the State Committee for Scientific Research, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, National Centre for Research and Development and National Science Centre. He is an author of numerous scientific books, over 300 articles and papers and over 30 implementations. In addition, he writes reviews for prestigious international journals. For his work in the field of science and education he has received numerous awards, including the award of the Minister of Science and Higher Education.

He was affiliated with the democratic and independence opposition movements. For over 30 years he has been involved in youth educational work. He was one of the founders of the independent scouting movement, in particular as part of Kręgi Instruktorów Harcerskich im. Andrzeja Małkowskiego (KIHAM). He was involved with the leadership of the underground Scout Movement of the Republic of Poland during and after the martial law period. For this activity, he was repressed by the communist regime. He co-organised the Scouting Association of the Republic (ZHR) and was its Chairman in 2004−2006. He is the Chancellor of the Cross of Honour Chapter of the Scouting Association of the Republic.

He wrote many articles and reports on upbringing and the situation of children and young people, was a co-author of the 'Report on the situation of Polish families' and the 'State Pro-Family Policy Programme'.

He served as the Chairman of the Tarnów Scientific Society, a member of the Polish IT Society, EUROMICRO (The European Organisation for Information and Microelectronics), and IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) - Computer Society.

He received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, awarded by the President of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, for his activity in the opposition movement in 1990.

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