Włodzimierz Ptak

His grandparents were Franciszek Ptak (1859–1936), an innkeeper, peasant movement activist and a member of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria, and Józef Krawczyk (1865–1942), a foreman in the cigarette factory “Cygar fabryka” at Dolnych Młynów Street in Kraków.

Włodzimierz Wojciech Ptak (2 November 1928 – 28 May 2019) was a Polish immunologist and microbiologist, professor of medical sciences, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Learning, professor and Vice-Rector at the Medical Academy in Kraków, later transformed into the Jagiellonian University Medical College, visiting professor at Yale University.

In his scientific work, he studied mainly the regulatory mechanisms of the immune response.

Together with Richard K. Gershon, he co-authored the discovery of regulatory T cells.

He was born in 1928 in Kraków as the son of Wojciech Ptak (1888–1946), an engineer and a graduate of the Lviv Polytechnic, and Maria Ptak (née Krawczyk; 1904–1986), an employee in kasa chorych, a public health insurance corporation.

The father, as his son recalled, was a tough, demanding and strict man, fluent in French and German language.

Włodzimierz had a younger sister, Wanda Ptak-Kollat (1930–1984), a master engineer in roads and bridges and a graduate of Kraków Polytechnic.

In 1936, Wojciech Ptak was offered a work in high office in the French-Polish railway company in Bydgoszcz, hence the Ptak family moved there.

In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, the Ptaks returned to Kraków, as Włodzimierz recalled: “We returned from a four-room apartment to a single room with a kitchen.

We've lost everything.

My father fell ill.

He died of a heart attack just after the war, before my high school graduation.”

In his youth, Włodzimierz Ptak learned to play the violin.

As a child, he attended the Bydgoszcz Conservatory of Music.

As a teenager, in German-occupied Kraków, he was a student of Stanisław Syrewicz, the concert master of the Kraków Philharmonic.

At the time, he attended the trade school at Brzozowa Street in Kraków, also taking secret Latin lessons from professor Pardiak.

From an early age, he was interested in biology and astronomy.

He read a lot about nature.

The book that he said attracted his attention particularly was The Natural History of One Protozoan by Jan Dembowski.

As a boy, Włodzimierz kept himself a large collection of protozoa at home, and next to it a dog, a cat, a canary, a fish and a white mouse.

Together with a friend of his, using glasses purchased at a local optical store, they constructed a simple telescope to observe the night sky.

From 1943, Ptak worked physically at the construction of the road from Dębniki to Prokocim, and later as a hand of a car mechanic in a workshop at Grzegórzecka Street in Kraków.

He recalled: “During the war, when I was thirteen, I was searching through my grandfather's large library, and I came across a book that largely influenced the formation of my worldview.

The Studies on Social Doctrines of Christianity by Yves Guyot contributed to the fact that I am irreligious.”

Ptak attended the Jan III Sobieski High School in Kraków, but due to a conflict with a mathematics teacher in the final year, he moved to the Henryk Sienkiewicz High School.

There, he passed the matura exam in 1946.

Also in 1946, he enrolled to the medical studies at the Medical Academy in Kraków.

There, among his teachers was Henryk Niewodniczański, who awarded Ptak with an excellent degree in exam in physics.

At the end of the studies, Ptak's interests began to focus primarily on microbiology and bacteriology.

A graduate of the Medical Academy in Kraków, he was forcibly drafted into the Polish Army between 1952 and 1957.

He graduated in 1952.

During the studies, to support himself financially, he founded a music group with colleagues from different universities, and earned money by playing at seasonal parties and weddings.

In 1952, immediately after the graduation, Ptak was forcibly drafted into the Polish People's Army.

He obtained Ph.D. in 1962 at the Medical Academy in Szczecin.

He published more than two hundred research papers, and was one of the most frequently cited Polish scientists in the field of biomedicine after 1965.

In 1967, he received British Council scholarship to the National Institute for Medical Research in London.

From 1974 until 1999, he was a visiting professor at Yale University, meanwhile standing as the Vice-Rector of the Medical Academy in Kraków (1978–1981) and a member of the Presidium of the International Union of Immunological Societies (1983–1986).

He received several awards and state distinctions, including the Knight's Cross (1977) and the Commander's Cross (1997) of the Polonia Restituta.

He was a member of the Presidium (1978–1984) and a Chairman (1988–1990) of the Scientific Council by the Minister of Health and Welfare of Poland.

Later, he was appointed a Secretary (1989–1995) and Vice-President (until 2008) of the Medical Faculty of the Polish Academy of Learning.