Polish Contributors to Our World

Casimir Pulaski (1747- 1779) After being exiled from Poland for advocating independence there, he came to America and participated as a general in the War for Independence against the British.

Thaddeus Kosciusko (1746 – 1817) – engineer and general who fought in the Revolutionary War against the British.

Gertrude Blanch (1897 – 1996) – Pioneer mathematician who founded the Association for Computing Machinery

Karol  Bobko (1937 - ) , NASA astronaut who served on Skylab, the Apollo- Soyuz test project, and has received numerous awards from NASA and the U.S. Air Force

Nicholaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) Famous astronomer and a creator of a theory of heliocentric system (that the sun was the center of the solar system) with mathematic details.

Marie Curie (1867 - 1934) – First woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize for her scientific breakthroughs in physics and chemistry, and the first person ever to win 2 Nobel prizes.

Walter Golaski (1913 - 1996) Bio-mechanical engineer who developed the first practical artificial vascular replacements.

Hilary Koprowski (1916 - ) – Virologist and immunologist who developed the oral polio vaccine and did ground-breaking work on the rabies vaccine.

Stephanie Kwolek (1923 - ) – Inventor of kevlar, the synthetic material that is 5 times stronger than steel used in bullet proof vests, aircraft and for other uses.  She was the fourth woman to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

William Markowitz (1907 – 1998) - Astronomer principally known for his work on the standardization of time (international definition of the second) and atomic clocks.

Albert Sabin (1906 – 1933) - Medical researcher who developed a more potent polio vaccine than had previously been created by Dr. Jonas Salk.

Martha Stewart (Kostyra) (1941 - ) – Martha is a popular magazine and television personality who built home arts and decorating into a multimillion dollar business.

Steve Wozniak (1950 - ) - Computer pioneer who co-founded Apple Computers and revolutionalized computers.  He is considered to be the “Father of the PC Revolution”.

Marie Zakrzewska (1829 - 1902) - Founder of the New England Hospital for Women and Children which was the first hospital in the city of Boston and only the second hospital in the U.S. to be run by female physicians and surgeons. She also pioneered a movement that opened the nursing profession to black women.

Frank Wilczek (1951 - ) - Nobel Prize winning physicist