page_title: Włodzimierz Ptak
section_title: 1970–1999: Between Kraków and New Haven
hierarchical_section_title: Włodzimierz Ptak / Life and work / 1970–1999: Between Kraków and New Haven
caption_attribution_description: Włodzimierz Wojciech Ptak (ur. 2 listopada 1928 roku w Krakowie) – doktor nauk medycznych, doktor habilitowany w zakresie immunologii, od 1976 profesor Instytutu Mikrobiologii Akademii Medycznej w Krakowie, od 1986 członek Polskiej Akademii Nauk, od 1989 Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności. Jeden z najczęściej cytowanych naukowców polskich. Wnuk Franciszka Ptaka. W 1977 roku odznaczony Krzyżem Kawalerskim Orderu Odrodzenia Polski, w 1997 Krzyżem Komandorskim Orderu Odrodzenia Polski. Współautor podręcznika Podstawy immunologii, za który wraz z Marią Ptak został nagrodzony przez Ministra Zdrowia.
context_page_description: Włodzimierz Wojciech Ptak was a Polish immunologist and microbiologist, professor of medical sciences, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Learning, professor at the Medical Academy in Kraków, later transformed into the Jagiellonian University Medical College.
  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 published more than two hundred research papers, and was one of the most frequently cited Polish scientists in the field of biomedicine after 1965.
  A graduate of the Medical Academy in Kraków, he was forcibly drafted into the Polish Army between 1952–1957. He obtained Ph.D. in 1962 at the Medical Academy in Szczecin. 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 and a member of the Presidium of the International Union of Immunological Societies.
context_section_description: He passed his habilitation exam in the field of pathology in 1970. Julian Aleksandrowicz was one of the reviewers of his work. In 1976 Ptak was given the title of full professor.
  Over the years, he held the position of Deputy Director of the Institute of Microbiology, Head of the Department of Experimental and Clinical Immunology of the Institute of Microbiology, and Head of the Department of Immunology of the Medical Academy in Kraków. Between 1978–1981, Ptak was the Vice-Rector of the Medical Academy in Kraków.
  From 1974 until 1999, he was a visiting professor at the Department of Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine at Yale University. Altogether, he spent there more than seven years by submitting twenty-six visits. At Yale, his direct superior was Richard K. Gershon, with whom Ptak collaborated extensively and made friends.
  Ptak believed that his frequent visits to the United States from a country of the Soviet Bloc, which Polish People's Republic then was, were enabled by the-then Rector of the Medical Academy in Kraków, Tadeusz Popiela: “It was not because the regime loved us that we left the country whenever we wanted. It was because Popiela often handed for us, and sent us on his own responsibility.”
  Ptak stopped visiting Yale at the end of the 1990s, in spite of the repeated invitations. He explained it with his age: “In Kraków I can adjust my work time: three–four hours a day. There [at Yale] I worked fourteen–sixteen hours a day. That I cannot do any more.”
  In 1986, he was elected a correspondent member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). In 1989, he was elected a member of the Polish Academy of Learning.
  He was a member of the Committee for Immunology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as a member of the Presidium of the International Union of Immunological Societies (1983–1986). In 1989, he was elected a member of the Polish Immunological Society, that later awarded him with an honorary membership. Ptak was also a member of the Presidium (1978–1984) and Chairman (1988–1990) of the Scientific Council by the Minister of Health and Welfare of Poland. Later, he was appointed the Secretary (1989–1995) and a Vice-President (until 2008) of the Medical Faculty of the Polish Academy of Learning.
  In his scientific work, he studied mainly the regulatory mechanisms of the immune response. He published more than two hundred original research papers in international peer reviewed journals, and was one of the most frequently cited Polish scientists in the field of biomedicine after 1965.
  Together with Richard K. Gershon, he was the co-author of the discovery of regulatory T cells. Beside, he participated in describing the regulatory functions of gamma delta T cells, and conducted research on the mechanisms of the early phase of cellular reactions, as well as the study of the regulatory functions of small interfering RNA.
caption: Ptak was a visiting professor at Yale University for several years. There, he worked together with Richard K. Gershon. He never moved permanently to the USA. In the picture: Ptak in his office in Kraków, 1990s
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