IN MEMORY 163
IN MEMORY
Dr. Marek Andrzej Jerzy Piasecki 12 September 1931 - 13 June 1999
D r . Marek A n d r z e j Jerzy Piasecki died, after t w o se- vere strokes, in Shrewsbury Hospital, England, on the
13lh of June, 1999. It was shocking and very sad news t o all w h o had k n o w n him, including m a n y geologists and iriends in Poland.
Marek Piasecki was b o r n in Warsaw on the 12th of September, 1931, and he lived there w i t h his parents till 1945. Marek's father, w h o had been involved in under- g r o u n d activities and co-operation w i t h the British, was killed by the nazis at the end of the war. In 1945, facing the encroaching Soviet occupation, with the help of the British Intelligence Service, Marek together w i t h his m o t h e r and b r o t h e r , passing the green border, left Poland and eventually arrived in Great Britain. As it came out later - practically, f o r the rest of his life.
Marek was educated at W o r k s o p College and Q u e e n M a r y College in L o n d o n , where he graduated in 1957. It was there that he became interested in geology - the field of science that was his life passion. In 1957, after a tempo- rary post lecturing at S o u t h a m p t o n , he got a position as lecturer in the D e p a r t m e n t of Geology of H u l l Univer- sity. Marek obtained his P h D and w o r k e d at that depart- m e n t till 1990 w h e n it was closed. T h e n he moved t o the D e p a r t m e n t of Geology at Keele University, w h e r e he w o r k e d as a senior lecturer until his retirement in 1997.
Marek was an excellent geologist and petrologist. H i s main areas of study were in the Caledonides in Scotland, N o r w a y and in the Appalachians of Canada. His extraor- dinary enthusiasm and his interdisciplinary attitude t o re- search problems, and in particular the usage of m o d e r n structural methods, c o m b i n e d w i t h detailed petrology, and co-operation w i t h isotope geochronologists (e.g. O t t o van Breemen), resulted in outstanding scientific achieve- ments w h i c h forced geologists t o revise previous concepts
concerning m a n y i m p o r t a n t aspects of the geology of the Caledonides.
In 1990, soon after the political change of 1989, Marek Piasecki visited Poland. H i s enthusiasm for the c o u n t r y of his childhood resulted, a m o n g other things, in the crea- tion of a n e w university educational scheme w i t h i n the T E M P U S Joint European Project. This co-operation in- volved research teams f r o m Keele University (UK) and University College D u b l i n (Ireland), and Polish col- leagues and students f r o m geological departments at the Jagiellonian, Silesian and W r o c l a w Universities, accompa-
nied by research teams of the Polish Geological Institute and Polish Academy of Sciences. T h e success of this TEM- P U S Project was largely a result of Marek's hard w o r k . Tens of students and scientists participated in courses, ranging f r o m weeks to 10 m o n t h s , at the co-operating Western universities. T h e y got not only access t o m o d e r n laboratories and technologies but had opportunities t o share the experience of British and Irish colleagues during excellent field trips. Marek was not only the organiser of field excursions but, also, an extraordinary field teacher, always with deep personal involvement. All w h o w e n t o n his field courses will always r e m e m b e r his enthusiastic, of- ten idiosyncratic lectures presented in remote parts of the Scottish Highlands. Apart f r o m student training, Polish institutions received f r o m T E M P U S significant material support, including geophysical equipment, microscopes, computers, books etc.
D u r i n g his visits t o Poland, Marek also became fasci- nated by current geological studies being carried on at that time, and in scientific discussions, first of all concerning the puzzle of the structural mosaic of the Sudetes and their position w i t h i n the European Variscides. H i s close co-operation w i t h Zbyszek C y m e r m a n resulted in new
Marek Piasecki (second on the right) with Polish students in the Scottish Highlands in 1993.
Marek Piasecki "hunting" shear indicators during field excursion to Scotland in 1993.
164 IN MEMORY
tectonic ideas, involving the suspected terrane t h e o r y which has inspired continuing discussion and contro- versy. Marek was also an active m e m b e r of the "geochemi- cal team" of several British and Polish scientists and a n u m b e r of Polish students, whose studies aimed in con- straining palaeotectonic settings of early and mid Palaeo- zoic magmatism in that part of the Bohemian Massif. All these activities helped t o create a n e w international re- search project, "Palaeozoic Amalgamation of Central E u r o p e " (PACE), f u n d e d by the E C and involving several institutions f r o m the U.K., G e r m a n y , Belgium, D e n m a r k ,
France, Czech Republic and Poland. T h e project is co- ordinated by J.A.Winchester (Keele), and Marek was a kind of " G o d f a t h e r " to this research N e t w o r k .
Marek Piasecki will remain in the memories of his colleagues n o t only as an outstanding scientist but, also, as a kind and helpful person always interested in and w i t h a deep understanding of h u m a n problems. H i s u n t i m e l y death shocked his m a n y friends and colleagues w h o sorely miss him, but retain a deep affection f o r h i m in their memories.
Ryszard Kryza & Andrzej Solecki (Wroclaw University)
