GROSZKOWSKI, Janusz Leon

After graduating from the Business School in Warsaw, Groszkowski started his studies at the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at the Technical College in Warsaw in 1915. In 1917 he already worked as an assistant in the laboratory for alternating current techniques. In 1919 he was an officer in the Polish army, and as such studied at the Officer’s College for Telecommunications in Paris, which at that time was one of the leading schools in that field. In 1921 he returned to his homeland and a year later received an engineering diploma from the Technical College in Warsaw.
In 1928 Groszkowski received his doctorate for his work The Compensation Method for Controlling Wave Stability and then habilitated with his discussion on diminishing wave frequency. In 1936 he was appointed full professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technical College. A year earlier he published a revolutionary discussion Cathode Waves and Their Use in Radiotelegraphy, translated into many languages.
In 1937 he and Stanisław Ryżko used the oxide cathode in a magnetron for the very first time. In 1939 he constructed the first metal magnetron in the world, which had inner circuits, oxide cathodes and an oil coolant.
His works in the field of magnetrons greatly contributed to the construction of a device that was used in Great Britain in 1940 as a defence against German air strikes.
In the 1960s Groszkowski experimented in the field of measuring remnant pressure in high vacuum; this research brought him worldwide recognition in the field of electronics.
Groszkowski is considered to have discovered the dependency of the inductivity of electrical coils on the alternation of the distribution of electricity in the coils’ profile. He published his findings in numerous publications, which were translated into many languages, such as The Basics of the Electrical Stabilities of Frequencies.
During World War II Groszkowski greatly contributed to the deciphering of the guidance system of V2 rockets and the deciphering of the radar system in Germany. After the war he founded the research of semiconductors and transistors.
Groszkowski was the author of 360 publications; 80 of them were translated into other languages.