Figure timeline
Marian Smoluchowski was a Polish physicist who worked in the territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was a pioneer of statistical physics and made significant contributions to the theory of Brownian motion and stochastic processes.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
science · Polish physicist (1872–1917) · physicist · mountaineer · professor · also Marian Smoluchowski, Smoluchowski
Born 28 May 1872 · Died 5 September 1917 · Q541895
23 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
2 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
Jan Grzanka published a book Zapomniany geniusz fizyki: rzecz o Marianie Smoluchowskim (The Forgotten Physics Genius: Marian Smoluchowski) devoted to the life and scientific work of Smoluchowski
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Senate of Poland passed a special resolution on the 100th anniversary of Smoluchowski's death establishing 2017 as the "Year of Marian Smoluchowski"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The International Astronomical Union named one of the craters on the Moon Smoluchowski after the Polish physicist
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Polish Physical Society established the Marian Smoluchowski Medal, an international award for significant achievements in the field of physics in recognition of Smoluchowski's contributions to science
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Died 1917-09-05.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Proposed the equation for diffusion in an external potential field
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was the Wolfskehl Foundation lecturer at Göttingen
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was appointed the chair of the Faculty of Experimental Physics at the Jagellonian University in Kraków
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Smoluchowski moved to Kraków to take over a chair in the Experimental Physics Department, succeeding August Witkowski, who had long envisioned Smoluchowski as his successor
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Haitinger Prize (1908).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Was awarded the Haitinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for his theoretical explanation of Brownian motion
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shortly after Albert Einstein, he independently explained Brownian motion
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Discovered density fluctuations in the gas phase, and in 1908 he was the first physicist to ascribe the phenomenon of critical opalescence to large density fluctuations
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
They had two children, Aldona Smoluchowska (1902–84) and Roman Smoluchowski (1910–96).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Had married Zofia Baraniecka (1881–1959), the daughter of Jagiellonian University Professor Marian Baraniecki
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Received an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Smoluchowski moved to Lwów (present-day Lviv)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Obtained his doctorate based on his dissertation entitled Acoustical Studies of Elasticity of Soft Materials
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Before becoming a privatdozent at the University of Lemberg three years later
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
When Smoluchowski was serving in the Austrian army
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1872-05-28.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Into an upper-class family in Vorder-Brühl, near Vienna, to father Wilhelm and mother Teofila (née Szczepanowska)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Connections