Andrzej Werynski

Professor Andrzej Werynski (1937-2011), corresponding Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, was a prominent Polish scientist in biomedical engineering, pioneer in the field of artificial organs. He was the co-originator of this field of knowledge in Poland.

He received the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Warsaw Technical University in 1960. Since 1963 he has worked for the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) in automatic control and medical engineering. In 1969 he received the Ph.D. degree in engineering science from the Institute of Automatic Control PAS. Since 1975 he has been with the Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering PAS in Warsaw where he served initially as Director of Research (1978-1992), and for the next 15 years as the Director of the Institute (1993-2007). In 207-2011 he served as Chairman of the Committee of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering PAS. He worked abroad as a visiting scientist at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands in 1972 and in the Department of Artificial Organs at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 1980-1981 and 1987-1988. In 2007, he was awarded the title of Foreign Professor at Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

His main research interests concerned artificial and hybrid organs used for supporting metabolism. He was an outstanding expert in the field of the mathematical modeling of physiological processes. His most important scientific achievements include the development of compartment modeling methods occurring during renal replacement therapy, particularly mathematical models used to describe hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. He was the author and coauthor of over 350 well-referenced publications including 130 peer-reviewed papers in indexed scientific journals and conference proceedings with ca. 1500 citations (H index 21).

He was Co-Editor for Eastern Europe in Artificial Organs, and member of the Editorial Committee of the Journal of Engineering in Medicine. He was very active in the international arena and a member of various societies. He was a board member of the European Society for Artificial Organs from 1994 to 1998, a Board Member and European Representative of the International Society for Artificial Organs from 1996 to 2003, and Professor-Member of the Senate at the International Faculty for Artificial Organs since 1996. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Prof. Werynski was awarded by several distinctions for his scientific activities. Among them: the Order of Polonia Restituta Knight’s Cross in 1989, and the Order of Polonia Restituta Officer’s Cross in 2000. In 2007 he was conferred with of the honorary degree of Doctor Honoris Causa of Medicine in Karolinska Institute (Sweden).