Notable alumni and staff , one of the founding fathers of the university (1924) of the university (1920) Adam Mickiewicz University's prestige and large class size have enabled it to graduate a large number of distinguished alumni. Many AMU alumni are leaders and innovators in the business world, as well as prominents in society and the arts. Its graduates include authors (
Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna,
Ryszard Krynicki,
Stanisław Barańczak), journalists (
Adam Michnik,
Max Kolonko), entrepreneurs (
Jan Kulczyk,
Grażyna Kulczyk); composer
Jan A. P. Kaczmarek, the recipient of the
Academy Award for Best Original Score (2004); theatre practitioner
Lech Raczak, film director
Filip Bajon and literary critic and a music
aficionado,
Jerzy Waldorff. One of the most notable
resistance fighters of the
Home Army during
Second World War,
Jan Nowak-Jeziorański majored in economics in 1936, he worked as an
assistant professor at the university. Notable academic staff included: • archeologists:
Józef Kostrzewski; • biologists:
Zygmunt Tobolewski; • historians:
Stanisław Kozierowski,
Gerard Labuda,
Henryk Łowmiański,
Anna Wolff-Powęska; • legal scholars:
Zygmunt Ziembiński,
Czesław Znamierowski,
Antoni Peretiatkowicz,
Michał Sczaniecki,
Sławomira Wronkowska-Jaśkiewicz,
Witalis Ludwiczak; • philosophers:
Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz,
Władysław Tatarkiewicz,
Leszek Nowak; • linguists:
Wiktor Jassem,
Grażyna Vetulani; • literature scholars:
Zygmunt Szweykowski,
Edward Balcerzan,
Stanisław Barańczak; • sociologists:
Florian Znaniecki.
Hanna Suchocka,
5th Prime Minister of Poland, first woman to hold this post in Poland and the 14th woman to be appointed and serve as prime minister in the world, graduated from university. Additionally,
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, the
12th Prime Minister of Poland and
Roman Giertych, the
Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and
Minister of National Education between 2006 and 2007, are graduates. Three graduates of the university have served as Marshals of the
Sejm and
Senate of the Republic of Poland.
Józef Zych,
Deputy Marshal of the Sejm (1991–1995, 2001–2005),
Marshal of the Sejm (1995–1997),
Senior Marshal (2005, 2011);
Marek Jurek, Marshal of the Sejm (2005–2007);
Rafał Grupiński,
Deputy Marshal of the Senate (from 2023).
Bohdan Winiarski was one of the longest-serving Judges of the
International Court of Justice (1946–1967) and between 1961 and 1964 its president. Additionally,
Krzysztof Skubiszewski,
Minister of Foreign Affairs (1989–1993), was the Judge sitting
ad hoc on the Court (1993–2004), also
Paweł Wiliński, Professor of Jurisprudence, chair in Criminal Procedure, served as the Judge sitting
ad hoc on the
European Court of Human Rights for two terms (2010–2012, 2015–2016). Three of the school's graduates, including
Alfons Klafkowski (1985–1989),
Mieczysław Tyczka (1989–1993) and
Julia Przyłębska (since 2016), have served as the Presidents of the
Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland. Three of the current fifteen members of the court graduated from AMU:
Julia Przyłębska,
Andrzej Zielonacki and
Justyn Piskorski. Additionally, the President of Poland,
Andrzej Duda, refused to swear in
Roman Hauser, former President of the
Supreme Administrative Court of Poland and
Krzysztof Ślebzak as the Tribunal's judges. Among the university's notable graduates are also: •
Bogumił Brzezinski (b. 1943),
chemist •
Krzysztof Czyżewski (b. 1958), author •
Elżbieta Frąckowiak (b. 1950), electrochemical engineer •
Franciszek Gągor (1951–2010), general, Chief of the
General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces •
Krzysztof Grabowski (b. 1965), poet and singer •
Maciej Henneberg (b. 1949), Polish-Australian
anatomist and communist-era dissident •
Anna Jantar (1950–1980), singer •
Tomasz Jasiński (b. 1951), historian •
Paweł Kisielow (born 1945), immunologist •
Włodzimierz Kołos (1928–1996), chemist and
physicist, one of the founders of modern
quantum chemistry •
Dominika Kulczyk (b. 1977),
sinologist, businesswoman and philanthropist •
Tomasz Łuczak (b. 1963), mathematician •
Crocheted Olek (b. 1978), New York-based
Polish-
American artist •
Halszka Osmólska (1930–2008), paleontologist •
Karolina Pawliczak (b. 1976), lawyer and politician •
Helena Polaczkówna (1881–1942), historian, archivist, war activist •
Jan Sokołowski (1899–1982), zoologist •
Adam Szłapka (b. 1984), politician, leader of the
Modern political party •
Wanda Wesołowska (b. 1950), zoologist •
Jan Węglarz (b. 1947),
computer scientist The Enigma Codebreakers ,
Jerzy Różycki and
Henryk Zygalski, Polish
mathematicians and
cryptologists who worked at breaking the German
Enigma ciphers before and during
World War II In the 1920s the German military began using a 3-rotor Enigma, whose security was increased in 1930 by the addition of a plugboard. The
Polish Cipher Bureau sought to break it due to the threat that Poland faced from Germany, but its early attempts did not succeed. Near the beginning of 1929, the Polish Cipher Bureau realized that mathematicians may make good codebreakers; the bureau invited math students at University of Poznań to take a class on cryptology. After the class, the Bureau recruited some students to work part-time at a Bureau branch set up in Poznań for the students. The branch operated for some time. On 1 September 1932, 27-year-old Polish mathematician
Marian Rejewski and two fellow Poznań University mathematics graduates,
Henryk Zygalski and
Jerzy Różycki, joined the Bureau full-time and moved to Warsaw. Their first task was to reconstruct a four-letter German naval cipher.
Honorary doctors Recipients of honorary doctorates from the university include Marshal
Józef Piłsudski, Marshal
Ferdinand Foch,
Marie Curie,
Ignacy Paderewski,
Roman Dmowski,
Witold Hensel,
Ernst Håkon Jahr,
Al Gore,
J. M. Coetzee,
Krzysztof Matyjaszewski,
Robert Maxwell and
Orhan Pamuk, the recipient of the 2006
Nobel Prize in Literature.
Wisława Szymborska, recipient of the 1996
Nobel Prize in Literature, received a degree of Honorary
Doctor of Letters of Adam Mickiewicz University in 1995, and it's the only
honorary doctorate she has ever accepted. ==List of rectors==