We deeply regret to inform you of the death of Andrzej Szczeklik on February 3, 2012. Born in 1938 in Cracow, Poland, Andrzej Szczeklik, MD, PhD, was a professor and long-term Chairman of the Dept of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College in Cracow. He received his graduate degree from the Medical University of Cracow and, after completing his 1-yr internship in the USA, he worked for 7 yrs at the Academy of Medicine in Wrocław, Poland. There, in 1966 he obtained his PhD. From 1972 he was the Chairman of the University Dept of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and in 1989 became Chairman of the Dept of Medicine, Jagiellonian University School of Medicine in Cracow. His training abroad also encompassed 3 months at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and University of Uppsala, Sweden and 5 months research fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. In 1985–1989, Prof. Szczeklik was a visiting professor to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, King's College School of Medicine, London, UK and Hochgebirgsklinik, Davos-Wolfgang, Switzerland. In 1990–1993 he was elected the Rector (President) of the Copernicus Academy of Medicine in Cracow, and then Vice-Rector of the Jagiellonian University for Medical College (1993–1996). Prof. Szczeklik`s main research interest included cardiopulmonary disease, aspirin-induced asthma, and chemical mediators in diseases of circulatory and respiratory systems with special reference to eicosanoids.
Prof. Szczeklik was lecturing extensively in major European, American and Japanese Universities. He was an author or co-author of more than 650 papers published, mostly, in the leading biomedical journals, including Nature, Lancet, NEJM, JCI, BMJ, Blood, Circulation, JACI, etc. He was also author, co-author and co-editor of several international and Polish books; organiser or co-organiser of 14 international symposia, and a member of numerous scientific societies, such as the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and immunology (AAAAI), European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), Polish Academy of Sciences, Pontificial Academy of Sciences in Vatican and Royal College of Physicians in London (honorary member).
In 1995 Prof. Szczeklik was awarded “Gloria Medicinae”, a medal of the Polish Society of Medicine, and in 1997 the first prize of the Lancet for the paper reporting on genetic polymorphism of leukotriene C4 syntase. In 1998 he received the scientific prize of the Royal College of Physicians and was elected to the College. In the same year he received the first award of The Polish Science Foundation for his studies on the mechanism of action of aspirin. In 1999 the University School of Medicine in Wrocław bestowed upon him the doctorate honoris causa. In 2000 he was awarded “The Robert A. Cook Memorial Lectureship” by the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. From 2001 to 2009 he received doctorate honoris causa from four other University Schools of Medicine: in Warsaw, Katowice, Lodz and Cracow. From 2006 until now he was Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Arts.
To the public at large he was also known as a writer and essayist. His books Catharsis [1] and Kore [2] were nominated to the Polish literary prize Nike and were translated into English, French, German, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Russian and Spanish.
- ©ERS 2012