Marek Gazdzicki

Gaździcki was born on 9 June 1956 in Warsaw, Poland, as the son of Teresa and Jerzy Gaździcki. Living with his parents and his younger brother Pawel in Warsaw, he went to primary school in 1964 and graduated from high school in 1976. He studied physics at the Warsaw University from 1976 to 1980. After completing his first scientific degree, he married Maria Magdalena Klink, a computer scientist, who graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology. In the time from 1981 to 1984 he moved to Russia, where he became a researcher at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. Back in Poland, he received his PhD in Physics, and became a lecturer at the Warsaw University in the time from 1989 to 1992. Additionally, he worked as a researcher at the University of Heidelberg (1986–1988) and at the University of Frankfurt/Main. Since 1992 he has been continuing studies as a Scientific Associate at the University of Frankfurt/M and from 2000 to 2001 at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland. Since 2003, he holds a professorship at the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland, and works as researcher and outside lecturer at the University of Frankfurt/Main. In 2004 he became spokesperson of the Virtual Institute of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres: "Physics of Strongly Interacting Matter at High Densities" and in 2007 spokesperson of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS. Marek Gaździcki currently lives with his wife and three children in the area of Frankfurt/M, Germany. == Research ==

The most significant subjects investigated by Gaździcki are: • 1980–1986: Nucleus-nucleus interactions at 4.5A GeV (Dubna and Warsaw) • 1986–1992: Collisions of light nuclei at 20A GeV (Frankfurt/Main, Heidelberg and Warsaw) • 1992–1996: Pb+Pb collisions at 158A GeV (CERN and Frankfurt/Main) • 1994–1999: Predictions of the threshold for quark–gluon plasma production (Frankfurt/Main) • 1997–2007: Evidence for the threshold at the low SPS energies (CERN and Frankfurt/Main) • since 1999: Low cross-section phenomena in Pb+Pb collisions at 158A GeV (CERN and Frankfurt/Main) • 1990–1993: STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) (Warsaw and Frankfurt/Main) • since 1992: Event-by-event fluctuations and the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) (Warsaw, Frankfurt/Main and CERN) • since 1998: Quarkonium production and high pT phenomena (CERN and Frankfurt/Main) • since 2003: NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS (Frankfurt/Main and Kielce) Selected achievements of Gaździcki's work are described as follows: '1980–1986: Nucleus-nucleus interactions at 4.5A GeV (Dubna and Warsaw)' Starting in 1980, Gaździcki participated in the SKM200 experiment at the Dubna Synchrophasotron, focusing on the investigation of hadron production in (He–Mg)+(Li–Pb) collisions at 4.5A GeV using a streamer chamber. The main results – which constituted the basis for his PhD thesis – were the first measurements of strange hadron production in relativistic nucleus–nucleus collisions and a first observation of strange hadron yield enhancement in central A+A collisions. '1986–1992: Collisions of light nuclei at 200A GeV (Frankfurt/Main, Heidelberg and Warsaw)' Subsequently, (1986–1992) he took part in the NA35 experiment at the CERN SPS, where he studied hadron production in (, )+(S–Pb) collisions at 200A GeV using a large volume streamer chamber. Here, a first observation of the enhancement of strange hadron production in A+A collisions at the SPS energies constituted the cardinal outcome of this experiment. This result constituted the main part of Gazdzicki's habilitation. '1992–1996: Pb+Pb collisions at 158A GeV (CERN and Frankfurt/Main)' In 1992, Gaździcki began working on the NA49 experiment, which was based on time projection chambers, the time of flight detectors and calorimeters. The study of central Pb+Pb collisions at the top SPS energy confirmed the main result from the study of S+S interactions: the enhancement of strange hadron production in nucleus–nucleus collisions. 1994–1999: Predictions of the threshold for quark–gluon plasma production (Frankfurt/Main) Gaździcki's further work (1994–1999) was focused on the compilation, analysis and the interpretation of experimental results on system size and energy dependence of pion and strangeness production in A+A collisions, as well as the development of statistical models of strong interactions. Based upon these testings, Gaździcki observed the anomaly in energy dependence of pion and strange hadron yields in A+A collisions. Lastly, along with Mark Gorenstein, he formulated the statistical model of the early stage which is a basis for the quantitative description of the observed effects, These observations serve as evidence for the onset of deconfinement at the CERN SPS energies. Since 1992: Event-by-event fluctuations (Warsaw, Frankfurt/Main and CERN) In 1992 he started along with his collaborators the work on the development of statistical methods for the study of event-by-event fluctuations, as well as the study of physics of event-by-event fluctuations in A+A collisions. The most important results are the introduction of the commonly used measure of event-by-event fluctuations, and the cumulative variable for the correlation/fluctuation study, as well as the study of fluctuations and statistical models with conserved quantities. == References ==