Viktor Kemula

Prof. Kemula among his colleagues, 1963

Wiktor Kemula (born November 6, 1902 in Ismajil , † October 17, 1985 in Warsaw ) was a Polish chemist and founder of the Polish school of polarography .

He was born in a Polish family in the town of Ismajil in the Danube Delta not far from the Black Sea. In early youth he lost both parents. Nevertheless, he passed his Abitur with distinction and thanks to the scholarship he began studying chemistry at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv in 1921 . At the age of 25 he became a doctor of chemistry.

1929–1930 he spent in Prague with Professor Jaroslav Heyrovský at the Charles University , then in Leipzig with Professors Peter Debye and Fritz Weigert (1876–1947).

In 1936 he was appointed to the chair of physical chemistry at Lviv University. In the same year he was elected a member of the Lviv Science Society.

During the Nazi occupation of Lviv he was employed in a food factory.

On July 1, 1945 he was appointed professor at Warsaw University . In 1955 he was elected chairman of the Polish Chemical Society. From 1952 he became a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). In 1960 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1968 he retired. 1981–1985 he was chairman of the Warsaw Science Society . On December 1, 1982 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Warsaw University.

Wiktor Kemula was the inventor of the hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE). He thus contributed to the development of electroanalytical chemistry, especially polarography.

Kemula was a music lover and actively played chamber music. He died during a concert in the Kreuzkirche in Warsaw.

Works

• Stanisław Tołłoczko, Wiktor Kemula: Chemia nieorganiczna z zasadami chemii ogólnej, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa, 1954, 1964, 1966, 1970

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• Biography of Prof. Kemula (* .pdf) (1.58 MB)