Professor Leszek Filipczynski (1923-2004), full Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, was a prominent Polish scientist in the field of acoustic, pioneer in the application of ultrasonic methods in biology and medicine.
Prof. Filipczynski received M.Sc. degree in radio-technical engineering from the Warsaw University of Technology in 1949 and the Ph.D. degree in engineering science in 1955. He was appointed associate professor in 1957, full professor in 1962, corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) in 1969, and full member of PAS in 1976. Since 1952 he was with the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research PAS, being the deputy director for scientific problems (1965-69), the general director of the institute (1969-74) as well as the chairman of the Scientific Council of the institute (1989-93).
He was the chairman of the Polish Committee for Acoustics PAS, founder and member of the Polish Acoustical Society, and chairman of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering PAS (1982-2004). Since 1993, he was also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Filipczynski was the author or co-author of 12 monographs and above 170 original publications in scientific journals and conference proceedings, as well as 62 patents. He promoted 14 doctors who became continuators of his scientific activity in Poland. His works concerned basic problems in the field of ultrasonic, especially: ultrasonic transducers, propagation of ultrasonic waves, material fatigue testing, ultrasonic defectoscopy, thermal effects generated by ultrasonic beams. He was pioneer in the ultrasound application in biology and medicine. His works were focused on ultrasonography of human organs such as brain, abdomen, eye, heart, on application of ultrasonic Doppler methods for blood flow measurements, as well as development of metrology of shock waves for lithotripsy and lately non-linear propagation of ultrasonic waves in soft tissues.
Prof. Filipczynski was awarded by several Polish state distinctions, among them the Commander Cross of the “Polonia Restituta”. He was recognized by the world-wide scientific authorities as pioneer in ultrasound application, he was granted by the American Institute for Ultrasonic in Medicine in Washington with Diploma of Pioneer of Ultrasonics in Medicine. In 1975-79 he was the vice-chairman of the European Federation for Ultrasonic in Medicine.