The late Dr Jerzy Mańkowski, a classical scholar and a researcher in Polish mediaeval and Renaissance literature, is portrayed through ten voices of his colleagues, disciples, as well as his daughter. He will be remembered for his wide knowledge and critical acumen, but first of all for the passion and enthusiasm which he passed on to his disciples and readers of his works. His relatives and friends also recall his love for hiking in the mountainous regions of Poland.

An obituary of Cecylia Zofia Gałczyńska, an archaeologist and librarian, who wrote among other things about the collection of ancient art in the Jagiellonian University’s Museum and the history of Szczecin, in particular prominent scholars from this city, Erwin Ackerknecht and Walther Amelung.

On December 6, 2022, Professor Hanna Taborska, an outstanding linguist, Slavicist, distinguished researcher of the Kashubian language, doctor honoris causa of the University of Gdańsk, Righteous Among the Nations passed away at the age of 92. She worked continuously for 58 years at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. She is the author of over 500 scientific publications, including fundamental works in the field of Kashubian and Slavic studies.

Professor Łucjan Krause, a long-term head of the Department of Physics of the University of Windsor died on July 4, 2022 in Windsor, Ontario in Canada. He was an outstanding Polish-Canadian physicist, who made important contributions to the atomic, molecular and optical physics. Born in Poznań on January 8, 1928, as a scout and Home Army soldier (nickname “Leonidas”), he took part in the Warsaw Uprising and after its failure was sent to a POW camp in Bergen-Belsen, in Germany. In 1951 after graduating from King’s College University of London, he emigrated to Canada, where he began his studies of physics at the University of Toronto. In 1955 he obtained in Toronto the PhD degree in physics under the supervision of Professor Harry Welsh in Raman spectroscopy of gases. Then for three years he worked as an associate professor of physics at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s. In 1958 he accepted an invitation from the University of Windsor and became a head of its Department of Physics. In Windsor, Krause created a vibrant scientific centre in which he developed research program in experimental studies of inelastic atomic collisions. The main attention was focused on the excitation energy transfer between colliding atoms, the quenching of fluorescence radiation by molecular gases and, more recently, on laser spectroscopy of metal excimers. In 1963 he initiated the cooperation with Professor Aleksander Jabłoński, head of the Chair of Experimental Physics of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Thanks to this cooperation numerous physicists, first from Toruń and later from other Polish scientific centers – as postdoctoral fellows – participated in experiments with the use of advanced laser equipment, not available in Poland at that time. In this way, Łucjan Krause contributed significantly to the development of physics in Poland. In order to pay tribute to his effort and devotion, in 1983 the Senate of Nicolaus Copernicus University awarded Professor Łucjan Krause a doctor honoris causa degree.

Professor Michał Głowiński died September 29th, 2023. Polish science has lost a great humanist and writer. Text brings a little reminder of his biography, work and influence on the scientific community.

This short paper presents the activity and achievements of Professor Zenon Waszczyszyn, active member of Polish Academy of Sciences and Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Cracow University of Technology and Rzeszów University of Technology, doctor honoris causa of Budapest University of Technology and Economics, creator of scientific schools in the field of stability of engineering structures and mechanics of shell structures as well as in the field of computational intelligence methods, in particular artificial neural networks.