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Mathesis Universalis - No.7, Summer 1998

Jerzy Łoś   In Memoriam

Jerzy Łoś died in Warsaw on June 1, 1998, at the age of 78.

He obtained a Master Degree in philosophy at the Maria Sklodowska-Curie University at Lublin in 1947. In 1949 he obtained a PhD in sciences at the University of Wroclaw and in 1955 a DSc in mathematics at the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1955 he received a scientific title of professor and in 1957 of full professor.

In 1964 he was elected a member-correspondent of the Polish Academy of Sciences and in 1983 a full member. In the period 1947-1961 Professor Łoś held academic positions at the Universities of Lublin, Wroclaw and Torun. For over 30 years he held positions at the institutes of the Polish Academy of Science, starting from 1957:

• Institute of Philosophy and Sociology;
• Institute of Mathematics - Head of the Algebra Group, Vice-Director;
• Institute of Computer Science - Head of the Department of Mathematical Methods in Economics.

Professor Łoś received numerous honors and awards: Cross of Merit, Polonia Restituta, Award of the Secretary of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the achievements in mathematical economics, Sierpinski Medal, Jurzykowski Award for the activity in Solidarity movement. In 1995 he received a honorary doctorate from the University of Hagen, Germany.

Professor Los served as President of the Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science (1979-1983, past President 1984-1988).

His research interests were exceptionally broad: philosophy, algebra (group theory), logic (model theory), probability theory, mathematical foundations of economics. He authored 71 publications on these subjects, including "Quelque remarques, theoremes et problemes sur les classes definissables d'algebres" in Mathematical Interpretation of Formal Systems, Studies in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics, North Holland, Amsterdam, 1955, 98-113 where the method of ultraproducts was by him introduced.