Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska

Zofia Emilia Kielan-Jaworowska (25 April 1925 – 13 March 2015) was a Polish paleobiologist. In the mid-1960s, she led a series of Polish-Mongolian paleontological expeditions to the Gobi Desert. She was the first woman to serve on the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences. The most notable dinosaur species she discovered include: Deinocheirus and Gallimimus while Kielanodon and Zofiabaatar were named in her honour. In her obituary in Nature, Richard L. Cifelli wrote that "Much of what we know about the origin and early evolution of mammals stems, directly or indirectly, from [her work]".

Early life and education Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska was born in Sokołów Podlaski, Poland, on April 25, 1925. In 1928, her father, Franciszek Kielan, was offered a job for the Association of Agriculture and Trade Cooperatives in Warsaw, to which her family moved for five years. Zofia and family returned to Warsaw in 1934 and lived in Żoliborz - a borough of Warsaw. She began her studies in Warsaw, following the destruction after the war when the Nazis had attempted to completely destroy the city, resulting in the Department of Geology joining the ruins. She attended lectures given instead by the Polish paleontologist, Roman Kozłowski, in his own home. This is where her passion began. She subsequently earned a master's degree in zoology and a paleontology doctorate at Warsaw University, where she later became a professor. 15 years later, she organized the first Polish-Mongolian paleontological quest to the Gobi Desert, and returned seven times. She became the first woman to serve on the committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences. Her findings remain arguably unmatched by any living expert. During World War II, together with her family, she helped to hide two Jewish women.

Career and research She was employed by the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She held a number of functions in professional organizations in Poland and the United States. Her work included the study of Devonian and Ordovician trilobites from Central Europe (Poland and Czech Republic), leading several Polish-Mongolian paleontological expeditions to the Gobi Desert, and the discovery of new species of crocodiles, lizards, turtles, dinosaurs (notably Deinocheirus), birds and multituberculates. She is the author of the book Hunting for Dinosaurs, and a co-author of the book Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs. Her work was published widely in peer reviewed scientific journals, books and monographs. While at the University of Warsaw, she started her master's research. This allowed her to join expeditions with other paleontologists and make various contributions. Kielan-Jaworowska participated in her first paleontological excavation in 1947 along with a group of researchers from the Museum of Earth and the National Geological Institute. The excavations, led by the geologist Jan Czarnocki, took place in Poland's Świętokrzyskie Mountains in exposures of Middle Devonian strata. The group's work involved digging for soft rock and rinsing away the sediment, consisting of yellow marl, in running water while using…Citește mai mult

Awards and honours In 1988, she was awarded the Walter Granger Memorial Award. In 1999, Kielan-Jaworowska received the Righteous Among the Nations Medal. She was awarded the Romer-Simpson Medal in 1996, becoming the 8th recipient of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's award, which honors sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence in the discipline of vertebrate paleontology. In 2002, she also became the recipient of the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Her book, Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs, won her the prestigious Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science in 2005. Her work was recognized "for a creative synthesis of research on the Mesozoic evolution of mammals". Kielan-Jaworowska's co-author, Zhe-Xi Lou, describes her contribution to paleontology as unmatched by any living experts, and that "in the whole of Mesozoic mammalian studies for the last 100 years, only the late American paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson would be her equal". "She is the rarest among the rare – she has been a leader in making important scientific contributions, and also a gregarious and charismatic figure, both of which have made paleontology a better science, and paleontologists worldwide a better community." She was a member of the Polish Geological…Citește mai mult

Personal life She married Zbigniew Jaworowski, a professor of radiobiology, in 1958.

Books Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. (1974). Hunting for dinosaurs. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-61007-0. Lillegraven, Jason A.; Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia; Clemens, William A., eds. (1979). Mesozoic mammals : the first two-thirds of mammalian history. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-03951-3. Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia; Cifelli, Richard L.; Luo, Zhe-Xi (2004). Mammals from the age of dinosaurs : origins, evolution, and structure. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11918-6. Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. (2013). In pursuit of early mammals. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-00817-6.