Ludwik Rajchman

Who was Ludwik Rajchman?

Ludwik J. Rajchman was a Polish bacteriologist. He was born to Aleksander Rajchman, the first director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, and Melania Hirszfeld. This was a family of assimilated Polish-Jews. While the parents were agnostic, Ludwik was baptized at birth. He was one of the founders of UNICEF, and served as its first Chairman from 1946 to 1950. A cousin of Aleksander Rajchman, a Polish mathematician and Ludwik Hirszfeld, a Polish microbiologist. Father of Jan A. Rajchman, a Polish-American computer scientist, inventor of magnetic-core memory.

In 1929 and 1930-1931, he served as a medical adviser to Chiang Kai-shek and Song Ziwen. In 1931-1939, he was an expert of China's National Economic Council, which had been set up with the aid of the League of Nations to promote development. In 1940-1943, he was Song Ziwen's adviser as a special representative of China to the United States.