We bid farewell to prof. Włodzimierz Siwiński
With great sadness we inform that Prof. Włodzimierz Siwiński has passed away. It is difficult to overestimate the Professor's contribution to the development of economic sciences in Poland and to the flourishing of the University of Warsaw.
Professor Włodzimierz Siwiński obtained his MA from the Department of Political Economy at the University of Warsaw in 1961, after defending his thesis prepared under the supervision of Professor Czesław Bobrowski. He was then admitted to Professor Oskar Lange's Department. In 1968 he defended his doctoral thesis prepared under the supervision of Professor Henryk Fiszel, and in 1976 he obtained his habilitation at the University of Warsaw. In the 1970s and 1980s, he went on several overseas internships, including at the University of Amsterdam, where he completed postgraduate European studies in 1970, as well as at Kent State University (1978) and Indiana University (1984). Since 1987, he was a titular professor, and since 1992, a full professor of economic sciences.
Professor Włodzimierz Siwiński's academic output is vast and mainly concerns international economics. His passion, from the 1960s, was trade theory. In later years he also explored non-trade aspects of the functioning of the world economy. After the transformation, Professor Siwiński's interests focused on problems of the opening up of the Polish economy and accession to the European Union.
From the early years of his academic career, Professor Włodzimierz Siwiński was intensively involved in organisational activities at the University of Warsaw. In 1974 he was appointed Deputy Director of the Institute of Economic Sciences, a post he held until 1977. After returning from an internship at Kent State University, he served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw from 1979 to 1981. In 1981, he became director of the Centre for American Studies at the University of Warsaw. From 1987, he was Vice-Rector of the University of Warsaw for six years, and then held the honoured position of Rector of the University of Warsaw from 1993 to 1999. Thanks to the Professor's exceptional organisational talents, but above all his exceptional ability to build compromises and atmosphere of cooperation, the University of Warsaw thrived during that period, going through a difficult period of systemic transformation of the Polish economy. In 1993, i.e. in the first year of Professor Siwiński's Rector's term, a competition for the design of the new Warsaw University Library building was announced and in 1999 the new Warsaw University Library was opened for use.
Professor Siwiński was active in integrating the academic community in Poland and taking initiatives to reform the system of higher education. He was one of the founders of the Polish Rectors Foundation. He was active in important state institutions such as the Scientific Research Committee and the State Accreditation Committee, as well as in international institutions dealing with the development of higher education and research.
We will remember Professor Włodzimierz Siwiński not only as an outstanding researcher and exceptional academic teacher, but above all as an extremely cheerful and kind person, treating every interlocutor with attention and respect, and above all - as a person who was the good spirit of the Faculty of Economic Sciences.
We will soon inform the Faculty’s community about the Professor's funeral ceremony.
