Józef Mianowski

Józef Mianowski (1804-1879) was a Polish medical researcher and practitioner, academic, social and political activist. Rector of Main School incarnation of the University of Warsaw (1862-1869). To honor him after his death, in 1881 a newly founded organization dedicated to supporting scientific research was named Józef Mianowski Fund (Kasa im. Józefa Mianowskiego).

Biography
During his youth, he finished studies at the University of Wilno. He worked as an assistant to Jędrzej Śniadecki in a clinic, was a friend of renown Polish poet, Juliusz Słowacki and in 1831 got married - although his wife died a year later in childbirth.

A rising star in the medical field, in 1838 he became an assistant professor in the Medical-Chirurgical Academy in Wilno (a school detached from University of Wilno, which was closed following the repressions after the November Uprising of 1830 - 1831). A lecturer in animal and human physiology and general therapy from 1839-1842, he thrice in that period received a prestigious 'diamond ring' from the Russian tsar.

Doctor of Polish independent activist Szymon Konarski, in 1840 he was arrested and underwent a harsh interrogation, but half a year later he was declared innocent and rehabilitated. He took a position in the Medical-Chirurgical Academy in Saint Petersburg, where he oversaw the gynaecology and pediatrics wards; he worked there from 1842-1860. In 1848 he was selected as the personal physician of the Tsar's daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, Duchess of Leuchtenberg. He was also a chief physician in the II Hospital of Land Forces. In 1860 he retired, but remained a physician of the Grand Duchess, and had extensive contacts in the court of the Russian Empire.

In 1862 he became a rector of the Main Warsaw School (Szkoła Główna Warszawska), at that time the only higher education institution in the Russian partition (all others were closed in the aftermath of the November Uprising). Thus, Main School is seen as an incarnation of the then-closed University of Warsaw. Mianowski gained much popularity with students and faculty, as he represented liberal views; for example his inaugural speech stressed the links between Polish and Western cultures. During the January Uprising in 1863 he lent clandestine support to the insurgents, and during later stages of the uprising he took part in the falsification of school records to give alibis of attendance to many students who participated in the uprising. Further, he supported enrollment and the creation of alibis for others. Due to his connections with the Saint Petersburg court, his plan succeeded, and the school became a sanctuary for many insurgents.

In 1868 he won another victory, ableit this one seen as a Pyrrhic victory: the Main School was enlarged and regained a name of University of Warsaw - however it was also significantly russified (and the full name was in fact Imperial University of Warsaw - Императорский Варшавский Университет). Mianowski, disappointed with such a turn of the events, emigrated and settled in Italy, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Mianowski Fund
In 1881, the alumni of the Main School established a foundation named after Józef Mianowski to support scholars active in the humanities and sciences. The foundation was known in Polish as Kasa im. Józefa Mianowskiego (and translated variously as Józef Mianowski Fund, Józef Mianowski Foundation or most literally, as Józef Mianowski Counting-house). Already in the late nineteenth century this institution became the major Polish organization sponsoring research and publication of scholarly works, and continued its activities after Poland regained its independence in 1918 (renamed to Institute for the Promotion of Science). Liquidated in the communist People's Republic of Poland, it was reestablished after the fall of communism in 1991.