TADEUSZ KACZOREK
Professor Tadeusz Kaczorek was born on 24 of April 1932 in Elżbiecin, Poland.
In 1956 he graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Warsaw University
of Technology. From the same Faculty he received the degree of PhD in 1962
and then in 1964 the degree of DSc. The scientific title of Professor was granted to
him by the State Council of Poland in 1971 and the title of Full Professor in 1974.
Professor Tadeusz Kaczorek began his professional career in 1954 at the Warsaw
University of Technology while still being a student and continued to work at the
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology up to 2003.
After his retirement in August 2003 he started to work at the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering of the Białystok University of Technology.
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During his work at the Warsaw University of Technology Professor Tadeusz
Kaczorek held many important roles and leading positions. Among others he served
as Dean of Faculty of Electrical Engineering, from 1969 till 1970, and as Vice Rector
of the Warsaw University of Technology, from 1970 till 1973. While he was Vice
Rector he initiated studies based on the individual curricula and alternating studies of
engineering. In 1964 he organised at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering the Chair
of Fundamentals of Electronics and Control Engineering of which he was the head
from 1965 to 1970. In 1970 he became organiser and the first director of the Institute
of Control Engineering and Industrial Electronics. He held those positions till 1981.
From 1970 to 2002 he was Head of the Department of Control Engineering Theory in
that Institute.
Research of Professor Kaczorek is concentrated around problems of control and
electrical engineering, in particular is mainly concerned with the theory of control of
linear dynamical systems. He has initiated and promoted research in the field of
two-dimensional (2D) systems thanks, where he obtained many original and
innovative results. The results were, in particular, presented in a monograph
Two-Dimensional Linear Systems, published by Springer in 1985. This monograph
established high international position of Professor Kaczorek. For this book Professor
Kaczorek was granted Individual State Award in 1986.
In his further research Professor Kaczorek carried out pioneering work concerned
with properties of multidimensional systems (nD systems), descriptor systems,
bilinear systems, continuous–discrete systems and, finally, positive dynamic systems.
The monograph by Professor Kaczorek entitled Positive 1D and 2D Systems,
published in 2002 by Springer and its Polish version Dodatnie układy jednoi dwuwymiarowe published by Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Warszawskiej,
Warszawa 2000, belong to the core of scientific literature. For the monograph
Positive 1D and 2D Systems Professor received Individual Ministerial Award in 2003.
During the last several years Professor Kaczorek became interested in research
concerned with the properties of positive systems of fractional order; the dynamics of
which are described by means of differential or difference equations of fractional
order. He introduced new classes of such systems including: 2D positive fractional
order systems and positive hybrid 2D systems (continuous–discrete) of a fractional
order, standard and descriptor. He presented new original methods of analysis and
synthesis of such systems. The obtained results were are summed up in his monograph
entitled Wybrane zagadnienia teorii układów niecałkowitego rzędu, published in 2009
by Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Białostockiej. The English version Selected
Problems of Fractional Systems Theory, considerably enlarged and published by
Springer-Verlag, appeared in 2011.
Within his research Professor Kaczorek applied and also developed advanced
mathematical methods, in particular those from matrix theory including polynomial
and rational matrices. Applications of this theory in electrical and control engineering
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are the subject of his textbook Wektory i macierze w automatyce i elektrotechnice,
WNT (first edition in 1984, and the second edition considerably enlarged in 1998).
These applications are also presented in his comprehensive monograph Polynomial
and Rational Matrices. Applications in Dynamical Systems Theory (Springer, 2007)
and its earlier, more compact, Polish version Zastosowanie macierzy wielomianowych
i wymiernych w teorii układów dynamicznych (Wydawnictwa Politechniki
Białostockiej, Białystok 2004).
The research achievements of Professor Kaczorek are indeed impressive. They
consists of approximately one thousand articles and scientific dissertations published
in foreign and Polish journals and conference proceedings. He is the author of twenty
four books, of which seven are in English. He supervised about 250 MSc dissertations
in engineering and seventy doctoral theses. He has been reviewer of numerous
PhD and DSc dissertations, and motions for professorship.
Professor Tadeusz Kaczorek created an important and lasting scientific school
in the field of control theory and dynamic systems. From this school emerged
20 professors. Twelve of them work in USA, Great Britain and Japan.
Professor Kaczorek initiated new subjects of research in the field of positive
systems, one and two-dimensional, standard and descriptor, and positive fractional
order systems, one and two-dimensional, standard and descriptor. His results did and
still lay out the directions of new scientific research carried out in many scientific
centres in Poland and abroad. Those results have inspired further studies.
His textbooks on the theory of control and systems have been reprinted many times.
Successive generations of engineers and PhD students of electrical and control
engineering have used them in their studies. In almost every major technical college
and university now work scientists whose research achievements and careers are
related to the person of Professor Tadeusz Kaczorek.
Professor Tadeusz Kaczorek is a member of editorial and scientific committees of
many international scientific journals and conferences organised throughout the
world. Among others he is a Chief Editor of Bulletin of the Polish Academy of
Sciences, Technical Sciences, Associate Editor of Mathematical Problems in
Engineering and Chairman of the Programme Committee of the journal Measurement
Automation and Monitoring. At the request of approximately 50 foreign institutions
of higher education he gave lectures in USA, Canada, Japan and many European
countries. This is proof of the recognition of his high position in the world of science.
Further proof of this position is the fact that he is often asked to present papers at
plenary sessions of prestigious international conferences.
Profesor Tadeusz Kaczorek has always actively worked for various professional
organisations. Apart from his engagements in the Warsaw University of Technology
he was for several years the Director of Research Station of the Polish Academy of
Sciences in Rome and has been member of the State Committee of Scientific
Research. He has been and still is appointed to various consultant or advisory bodies
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for the Polish President and the Prime Minister. For many years he has taken part
in the work of two committees of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Committee
on Automatic Control and Robotics, and Committee on Electrical Engineering.
For several years he served as a Chairman of Committee on Automatic Control and
Robotics.
He was elected to correspondent membership of the Polish Academy of Science in
1968 and then in 1998 he became a full member the Academy. He is also a member of
the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Academy of Engineering
in Poland and honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Science. He takes part
in the activity of the Foundation for Polish Science and the Ethics Commission of the
Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 1996 he serves as a member of the Central
Commission for Scientific Title and Scientific Degrees. From 2003 to 2007 he was its
Vice President and since April 2007 he is the President.
For his scientific and educational achievements Professor Kaczorek received many
prestigious awards, including State Award, 14 ministerial awards, award of
Department IV of the Polish Academy of Sciences and many awards from the Rectors
of the Warsaw University of Technology and the Białystok University of Technology.
He also received the Member Cross of Polonia Restituta and the Medal of the
Commission of National Education.
The proofs of the very exceptional recognition and high evaluation of Professor
Tadeusz Kaczorek’s scientific achievements and service to science are, in particular,
offered by his being awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of
Zielona Góra and the eight Universities of Technology located in: Lublin, Szczecin,
Warsaw, Białystok, Łódź, Opole, Poznań and Rzeszów.
Professor Tadeusz Kaczorek is known for his remarkable modesty and for his
kindness. He is also known for his scientific and personal integrity. He is always
ready to offer advice and support in solving problems, not only of a scientific nature.
He maintains that his mission is first of all to help other people. Polish control
engineers, in particular the members of the Committee on Control and Robotics of the
Polish Academy of Sciences, are proud of him and happy to celebrate His Eighty
Birthday.
Prof. Krzysztof Malinowski
Chairman of the Committee on Automatic Control
and Robotics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Prof. Mikołaj Busłowicz
Member of the Committee on Automatic Control
and Robotics of the Polish Academy of Sciences,
Chairman of the 80th Anniversary Committee