August Chełkowski

Who was August Chełkowski?

August Chełkowski was a prominent Polish physicist and politician.

Born in the small village of Telkwice, then in East Prussia he was a son of Franciszek Chełkowski, a wealthy landowner and prominent activist of the Polish community in Prussia and his wife Emilia. He was related to a number of other Polish activists by his maternal side.

He was a 1948 graduate of the prestigious Karol Marcinkowski Lycee in Poznań and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He earned his MSc degree in physics in 1952 and his PhD in 1958.

Although he was a Poznanian, he relocated permanently to Katowice in 1967, together with a number of other scientists from Poznan. In 1968, when the University of Silesia was established, Chelkowski, along with other scientists from Poznan, established that University's Physics Institute, which was named after him in 2000.

He went to became a professor of the University of Silesia in Katowice in 1973 and a higher ranking professor in 1990.

He served as the Rector of the University of Silesia in Katowice from September 1, 1981 until January 12, 1982, when he was dismissed by the then minister of higher education for political reasons.