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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Professor Zbigniew Cywiński, born on February 12, 1929 in Toruń (Poland), studied civil engineering (bridge and structural engineering) at the Politechnika Gdańska (Gdańsk University of Technology: GUT) becoming Bsc - in 1953 and Msc - in 1955. In 1964 he has been promoted to PhD and in 1968 - to Dsc. He became Professor in 1978 - working in that character at the GUT until the end of 2000; presently, he is Professor Emeritus. He has 50 years of professional practice in teaching and research of the theory of structures, and in design of bridge and structural engineering - in Poland and abroad. Several years he was working as Professor or Expert outside his home country: in Iraq - at the University of Baghdad (1965-1966) and at the University of Mosul (1970-1973); in Somalia - on behalf of UNESCO at the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu (1979-1980); and in Japan - at the University of Tokyo (1987-1988). He was active internationally also by participating in many scientific and professional congresses and conferences. He has written some 400 publications, including 6 books or monographs, a lot of them - in English or German.
In his research, Professor Zbigniew Cywiński concentrated mainly on different problems of structural mechanics but his professional stay in Japan caused a sincere strengthening of his interest in bridge engineering - with a special emphasis on bridge performance and aesthetics. That was the reason for his increased attention paid to philosophy, culture, and social sciences - as related to the contemporary needs of the civil engineering profession. Especially, he studied the question of the cultural landscape - determined broadly by the mutually connected ideas of ethics, environment, aesthetics, heritage, and sustainability. This was also the cause to investigate deeper the requirements of the contemporary engineering education - its need for humanization, in particular.
Professor Zbigniew Cywiński was Head of the Postgraduate Study "Theory of Civil Engineering Structures" (1974-1975), Vice-Dean of the Civil Engineering Faculty (1975-1978), and its Dean (1984-1987, 1993-1996, and 1996-1999). For his achievements in teaching and research he was awarded, many times, by the Minister and the Rector. He is bearer of diggerent Polish orders and distinctions - of the Officer's Cross of Poland's Rebirth Order on top. He is member of several home and foreign scientific and professional associations, like the Polish Society for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Polish Society of Bridge Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers, and International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering; within the last one, he is delegate to the Permanent Committee and member of the Working Commission 7 - Sustainable Engineering.
Some other data of Professor Zbigniew Cywiński's biography can be found in the Biographical Dictionary of the Information Processing Centre (Poland); BEST Europe Database of the Catermill International (UK); Dictionary of International Biography of the International Biographical Centre (UK); Marquis Who's Who in the World, - in Science and Engineering, or - in Finance and Industry (USA); American Biographical Institute, Inc. (USA); and Who's Who Historical Society (USA).
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