|
MEMORIAL
Professor Bernard Barcikowski, M.V.D., D.Sci.
1936 - 2003
We learned with deep sorrow that our friend and co-worker Professor Bernard
Barcikowski passed away on January 3, 2003. He was one of the illustrious
scientist of the Kielanowski Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition
of the Polish Academy of Sciences at Jabłonna. His name was synonymous with
research in physiology of reproduction and growth and in introduction of
new methods of the assay of hormones in blood to the study of domestic animals.
After graduation from the Agricultural University of Warsaw, the Faculty of
Animal Husbandry and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine he joined in 1964 the
scientific staff at the Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition at
Jablonna. Bernard Barcikowski received a D. V. M. degree from the Agricultural
University of Warsaw in 1969. In 1971 he joined the research team of Worcester
Foundation for Experimental Biology, Strewsbury, Mass., U.S.A., where he worked
in close collaboration with Dr. McCracken on the influence of prostaglandins on
copus luteum function, a pioneering subject at that time.
He received his Doctor of Science degree at the University of Olsztyn in 1977.
The President of Poland nominated him to Professor of Veterinary Science in
1990. Then he worked for six months at the University of New England, Armidale
in Australia where he taught university students. He was a scientific director
in the years 1978-1985, in the years 1986-1990 he held the position of director
of the Institute of Animal Physiology and Nutrition of the Polish Academy of
Sciences.
He started his research under the supervision of
Professor Eugeniusz Domanski on the neuroendocrine mechanisms of estrous
cycle and ovulation in cows, sheep and pigs. He developed widely appreciated
surgical methods enabling the precise investigation of pituitary-gonadal
functions in different species. Another research area of interest to him
was the radioimmunoassay methods for the estimation of steroid and protein
hormones in blood and tissues. An open and critical mind to research problems
gave him the respect of the Polish and world research community.
It should be emphasized that Prof. Bernard Barcikowski
together with Dr. Katarzyna Romanowicz-Barcikowska, his wife and close
co-worker, resolved many problems in the research of stress in pig
reproduction and on the survival and development of embryos. He introduced
actual problems to the research in the Institute including the role of
melatonin in the reproduction and influence of phytoestrogens on the organism.
As a director of the Institute and head of the
Department of Neurophysiology and Endocrinology for many years, he paid
attention to the fruitful collaboration with other Polish institutes and
foreign laboratories in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Sweden, Egypt
and Ukraine. He was an active member of the Polish Society of Physiology,
the Polish Society of Zootechnics, the Polish Society of Veterinary Science
and the Polish Society of Endocrinology. He merited greatly for the Polish
science as a member of the Committee of Biology of Reproduction of the Polish
Academy of Sciences, a member of Scientific Council of the Veterinary Magazine,
a member of the Editiorial Board of the Journal of Animal and Feed Sciences, an
adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture, a member of the local ethical committee
and a member of scientific councils of many Institutes. Professor B. Barcikowski
was the author or co-author of 111 original research papers, research
communications or chapter in books.
He received many prestigous scientific awards,
among others the Award of the Secretary of Polish Academy of Sciences, the
Polish Society of Endocrinology, the Secretary of Polish Academy of Sciences,
the Secretary of the Agricultural and the Veterinary Department of the Polish
Society of Polish Academy of Sciences. He was also decorated with medals of
the Polish State for his contribution to science.
We will keep Professor Bernard Barcikowski our director, boss and friend in our
fresh and grateful memory.
Prof. Kazimierz Kochman
Prof. Franciszek Przekop
|
