In Memoriam

Mirosław J. Mossakowski 1929–2001. It is with sadness that we report the passing of Professor Mirosław J. Mossakowski on December 26, 2001. Professor Mossakowski was a leading figure in neuropathology and neuroscience in Poland. He was born in 1929 in Bereza Kartuska, eastern Poland. He graduated with distinction from the Medical School in Gdansk in 1953. A year later he moved to Warsaw to obtain PhD training under the guidance of Prof. Adam Opalski at the Department of Histopathology of the Central Nervous System, a research unit that eventually evolved into the Department of Neuropathology. A few years later that research unit became the nucleus of the Medical Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, an institute that he founded and headed for more than a quarter of a century. In the early years of his career he also worked at the Neurological Clinic of the Medical School in Warsaw where he specialized in neurology under the guidance of Prof. I. Hausmanowa-Petrusewicz. In 1959 he left for Montreal where he trained with Wilder Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute. In 1966 the Medical Academy of Warsaw granted him the Second Doctorate (doctor habilitatus) for his thesis entitled “Pathomorphology and Histochemistry of Spontaneous and Experimental Hepatic Encephalopathies.” The years 1966–1967 were spent working in the laboratory of Professor Igor Klatzo at the National Institutes of Health. For more than three decades his research had been in the forefront of investigative studies on various neurological disorders. Foremost was his brilliant early work on the morphological changes of neural cells exposed to ammonia, copper and sera from patients with hepatic encephalopathy, highlighting the critical role of astrocytes in the mechanism of this disorder. His studies on cerebral ischemia brought about one of the first demonstrations of imbalance between glycogen synthesis and metabolism in the CNS. Among his many colleagues and associates were Henryk Wiśniewski, Krystyna Wiśniewski, Maria Spatz, Thaddeus Mandybur, Boleslaw Liwnicz, Bolesław Lach and Jan Korthals. In addition to his considerable scientific contributions, he extended his inexhaustible energy and untiring devotion to the promotion of neuroscience and neuropathology. He was president of the Polish Academy of Sciences from 1999 until his last days. He was a founding member, honorary member and president of numerous learned societies, including the Association of Polish Neuropathologists, Polish Neuroscience Society, and the Polish Society of Cytochemistry and Histochemistry. He served for two terms as a vice-president of the International Society of Neuropathology, and was a member of the American Association of Neuropathologists, International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and many other scientific societies. Professor Mossakowski served on the editorial boards of many journals including Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis and Clinical Neuropathology. He received many prestigious awards and nominations; he was a member of the Instituto Mexicano di Cultura, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, Doctor Honoris Causa of the Medical Academies in Lublin, Gdansk, Białystok and Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Professor Mossakowski was a kind and generous man, a superb teacher, and role model. He will be sorely missed by all who were fortunate to experience his matchless wit, knowledge and wisdom.

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