In memory of Witold Kondracki

Witold Kondracki passed away on June 24, 2015, at the age of 65.

 Witold Kondracki was born in 1950 in the Warsaw district of Żoliborz. Little Witek had passion for chemistry and for what was most spectacular about it – pyrotechnical experiments. It was because of one of such experiments that in 1964 the house he was living in was shaken by an explosion, as a result of which Witold lost his sight.

Witold Kondracki worked at the Institute of Mathematics for over 40 years. He had links to the Institute since he obtained a degree at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw in 1973. At the same time, he also studied at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Warsaw. The Institute was his only place of work up until his premature passing. It was here that in 1976 he obtained his doctorate on the basis of a thesis written under the supervision of Krzysztof Maurin entitled Geometrisation of classical field theory and its application in the theory of Yang-Mills fields, and that in 1985 he obtained the habilitated doctor degree on the basis of a thesis entitled On the stratification of the orbit space for the action of automorphisms on connections. He was a highly educated, excellent scientist with very broad interests. In 1988, he was awarded a prize by the Polish Mathematical Society. In 1989-90, he was a scholarship-holder of a Humboldt Foundation at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics. He also stayed for a few months at the Harvard University. He specialized mainly in the applications of mathematics to the basic theories of physics describing our Universe. He was also interested in the foundations of mathematics, in particular, number theory and its applications to cryptography. In recent years, he worked on the applications of statistical methods to data analysis, and he participated in a large international project devoted to gravitational waves detection. He promoted one doctor.

While working on a given problem, Witold always organized a small group of people for whom he was a leader and a motive force. For each of his collaborators he would come up with some expressive nickname, which helped to integrate the group. When cooperating with other people he was characterized by an extraordinary inquisitiveness which led to the problem solution. He mobilized his colleagues by calling them and arranging meetings.

Witold Kondracki had very broad interests and great passions. In particular, he had passion for travel. He travelled to many Asian countries. I recall when we travelled together to India. Witek, thanks to his knowledge and contacts, was the main organizer and guide during this journey. For me and for some other participants, it was a first trip to India. I remember that Witek laughed at our anxiety and at our ignorance of this country, the country of which he was connoisseur.

Witold Kondracki was married and fathered three children.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Andrzej Królak