Marcant personalities of the IAP

Many prominent personalities honored us with their enrolment in IAP. Some of these are:

• Andrei Andriesh
   
• Ernest Arushanov
   
• Mircea Bologa
   
• Boris Lazarenko
   
• Tadeusz Malinowski
   
• Sevatoslav Moskalenko
   
• Vsevolod Moskalenko
   
• Alexey Simashkevich
   
• Yurii Simonov
   

TADEUSZ  MALINOWSKI

The 14 October, 2011 was the day of the 90th anniversary of the eminent Moldavian physicist-crystallographer Tadeusz Iosifovich Malinowski, doctor habilitat of Physical and Mathematics, Member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, recognized organizer of the Moldavian academic science, professor, twice a laureate of the State Award of Moldova.

The beginning of crystallography in the Republic of Moldova can be traced to the period just after World War II and associated with the name Tadeusz I. Malinowski. The development of coordination chemistry initiated by famous Moldavian chemist A.V. Ablov required and facilitated progress of physical methods in this field of research. Fortunately, that time Prof A.V. Ablov met young, persistent and energetic person, future academician and the founder of crystallographic school in Moldova T.I. Malinowski and suggested him to develop X-ray crystallographic research of coordination compounds. Since that time scientific and organizational activity of T. Malinowski all was related with the academic science in Moldova.

Malinowski was born in Chisinau into a Polish family. His parents settled in Moldova in 1913, father was a miller and mother - medical assistant. They worked in different towns and villages of Moldova and in 1928 finally settled down in Chisinau, where Malinowski was educated at a elementary and secondary schools. That time he studied Romanian, Russian, German, French, and Latin. In 1940 T. Malinowski entered the Department of physics and mathematics of the Chisinau Pedagogical institute. The Second World War interrupted his education. After brief stay in army, he was directed to the Ural to work at a military factory at the “labor front”, simultaneously he continued education. From 1944 till 1946 he worked in an Allied Control Commission on Romania, where promoted returning of the material values which had been taken out from Moldova during the Second World War.

Tadeusz I. Malinowski after finishing a military service in 1946 graduated from the Department of physics and mathematics of the Pedagogical Institute in Chisinau, and up to 1950 worked at school teaching physics and mathematics. In 1950 T.I. Malinowski began scientific activity associated with crystallography as a laboratory assistant. His first steps in science were related with X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD) study of minerals and he was a pioneer in Moldova who determined single crystal structures by X-ray method. He studied the isomerism in the compounds that belong to the MX₂2A class, where M = Co, Ni, Cd, X = Cl, Br, and A stands for neutral ligands. His first scientific paper entitled “Structure of cobalt dianilinehalogenide” has been published in co-authorship with A.V. Ablov and G.B. Bokii in the journal “Crystallography” in 1956. This work resulted in defense of the PhD dissertation on crystallography and crystal physics in the Institute of Crystallography of the Academy of Sciences of USSR (Moscow) in 1956. His supervisor was famous Russian crystallographer N.V. Belov, well known also as President of the International Union Crystallography from 1966 to 1969. Friendship and cooperation with Russian crystallographers were very important for foundation of crystallographic school and scientific brainpower development in Moldova. T.I. Malinowski propelled his young co-workers to collect experience in the leading scientific laboratories of Moscow. He also made the incredible efforts to obtain for Moldova equipments rare in those years: Waissenberg camera, KFOR camera to photograph reciprocal lattice, RKOP camera to determine the unit cell parameters, and precession X-ray camera as well as X-ray sources had been purchased and gave rise to experimental works.

In 1957 on the base of the Laboratory of Physical Methods of Solid State Investigation (LPMSSI) created by T.I. Malinowski the Department of Physics and Mathematics of Moldavian affiliated branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was established. In 1961 the Academy of Sciences of Moldova has been founded, and in 1964 after a few rearrangements Department has been finally reorganized into the Institute of Applied Physics of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, where T.I. Malinowski remained the head of the Laboratory. In the seventies the cumulative experience of the scientific team, improvement of experimental base, new computers, and invitation of young scientists promoted essential growth and development of the scientific potential of the crystallographic researches and determined the multidirectional activity of the Laboratory.

Close professional and personal relationships of Malinowski with prominent Russian scientists N.V. Belov, G.B. Bokii, V.K. Vainshtein, and M.A. Porai-Koshits favored the all-USSR fame of Moldavian crystallographers and four all-USSR schools on Equipment and Methods of X-ray structural analysis took place in Moldova.

In the 1970s, Malinowskii stimulate the structural studies of biologically active organic and inorganic compounds, macrocycles and their supramolecular complexes as well as compounds exhibiting structural phase transition. An enormous attention he pays to the development of methods of structure determination, involving new algorithms and software.

In the 1975 first computer-controlled 3-circles diffractometer DAR-UMB and about ten years later second one 4-circles RED-4 (both made in Inst. of Crystallography, Moscow) have been installed as well as diffractometers for XRPD method. Step-by-step X-ray photo-method facilities have been supplanted and use of computers became widespread. This time the alumni of Moscow State University and Moldavian State University, physics and chemists entered Laboratory and formed the second generation of Moldavian crystallographers. Collaboration with Polish scientific centers established by T. Malinowski was especially important. Many Moldavian crystallographers gained access to modern X-ray diffractometers at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw headed by Janusz Lipkowski, on the Faculty of Chemistry of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Prof. Maria Gdaniec, and in the Gdansk University of Technology(Prof. Jan Biernat). In return, Polish scientists often visited Moldova to participate in conferences, to discuss joint scientific results and to plan future projects.

In the 1990s, the Laboratory participated in a number of international cooperative grant programs: INTAS, ISF, SCOPES, CRDF/MRDA. Members of the Laboratory were awarded grants from the International Science Foundation, American Crystallographic Association, Mianowski Foundation and others. International cooperation opened up a wide spectrum of the research topics involving cooperation with scientific centers in Russia, the Ukraine, European countries and the United States.  Moldavian crystallographers reported their results at international meetings in Europe and the USA, Schools on Supramolecular Chemistry (Ustron, Poland) and Crystallography of Supramolecular Compounds (Erice, Italy). They organized similar meetings in Moldova, including a series of International Meetings on Physical Methods in Coordination and Supramolecular Chemistry, held in Chisinau.

Personal scientific activity of Malinowski may be characterized by more than three dozens of PhD and Doctor habilitate theses in crystallography and crystal physics that have been prepared and defended. The list of his publications contains about 650 scientific works, including monographs. Malinowski participate in more than 30 international conferences on crystallography, physics, and chemistry in Soviet Union, USA, France, United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, Poland, China, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, and some others countries. Malinowski successfully combined scientific and administrative activities. He was Deputy Director of the Institute of Applied Physics, The Main Scientific Secretary and a member of the Presidium of Moldavian academy of Sciences, and a member of the Bureau of the Division of Physical-Technical and Mathematical Sciences of Academy.

Colleagues remember T.I. Malinowski as reliable and responsible man, well-educated and well-informated in different areas involving history and history of religion. He was always full of energy and fond of life. He spent much time and efforts to professional education and upbringing of generations of young scientists. For many years, he taught various special courses at Chisinau (now Moldavian) State University, was an active member of “Knowledge society” and chair of Scientific Council of the Moldavian Planetarium, president of the Physical Society of Moldova. The public activity of Malinowski was related to the society of Polish People in Moldova. He was the President of this society and for his activity was awarded the Polish award for foreigners - the Large Knight Cross.

To commemorate academician T.I. Malinowski, the Laboratory of Physical Methods of Solid-state Investigation was named after him. Colleagues, disciples, and friends, all those who had the pleasure to be in contact and cooperate with Tadeush Iosifovich Malinowskii will certainly remember him gratefully and will pass to the next generations of crystallographers the fond memories about the wonderful person, outstanding scientist and the founder of crystallographic school in Moldova.