Memory of Professor Maria Szeptycka at our Institute

Professor Maria Szeptycka was associated with our institute for almost 60 years. She was an active participant in research groups conducting high-energy physics experiments, headed the scientific department, sat on the Institute's Scientific Councils for many terms, educated and supported young scientists, and co-authored several hundred scientific papers. We will all miss her greatly.

We extend our deepest sympathy to her family and loved ones.

Management and Scientific Council

of the National Centre for Nuclear Research

Memory of Professor Ewa Rondio

It is difficult to come to terms with the news of Prof. Maria Szeptycka-Hula's passing from us. We all remember her as an extremely energetic, active person who participated with all her energy in scientific activities. It is difficult to talk about why someone was important to us, because sometimes we are not fully aware of this, sometimes we do not even want to know, and suddenly it turns out that fate brutally makes us realise this by taking such a person away.

My first encounter with Hula was in the old days, back when I was still a student doing an exercise with her as part of a specialised laboratory related to the processing of data from an experiment at CERN. I remember the mood of the discussion rather than the purpose of the exercise. It was important to understand exactly what you were doing and why, all questions were allowed, but you had to be able to defend your results and the methods used.

After that, we did not have close contacts for many years, although we participated in experiments at CERN. It was only with the establishment of the neutrino group at our institute at the beginning of this century that the situation changed and cooperation became close. Over the years, we worked together on a daily basis talking about physics, discussing the situation at the institute and having important discussions about current affairs. For these years of cooperation I am very grateful to her. Hula's experience of the properties and capabilities of detectors and electronics in the measurements carried out were extremely valuable and helpful to the whole team. Her contribution cannot be overestimated, even though Hula could not, for health reasons, travel to the experiments conducted in Italy and later in Japan. This did not prevent her from participating fully in the work of the team, preparing mini seminars, asking important questions that often opened up new topics to be explored, and teaching group members to look critically at the results. We could always count on her to contribute to the preparation of the discussion material, to evaluate and clarify doubts about the chance of making a reliable measurement.

Active participation in the work of the neutrino group has continued recently despite the difficulties of the pandemic. Until last week, Hula was still following the events in the neutrino group, participating remotely in the weekly working meetings, preparing materials for these meetings and often reporting the latest measurements from other experiments. This approach to work and to problem solving could be a model for any researcher.

Meetings with Hula were always fruitful and informative. Her inquisitiveness and enthusiasm for solving scientific problems, as well as her consistency, will be greatly missed.

Her memory will always remain with us.

Ewa Rondio

Memories of colleagues from the Laboratory of Cosmic Radiation in Łódź

The passing of Professor Maria Szeptycka came as a surprise to us. Some of us had appointments for further talks and discussions about the work done in our Laboratory in Łódź. We owed a great deal to these discussions. Prof. Szeptycka had a great curiosity about the world, i.e. when she encountered a phenomenon she did not understand, she never "let it go" but tried to understand it, so during discussions with her, projects for future research lost their vague outlines and became concrete plans for measurements. Professor Szeptycka had a great knowledge of detectors and measurement methodology.

Professor Szeptycka's contacts with the Łódź group began around 2005, when she agreed to take in a "stray" doctoral student from Łódź and become his supervisor. Prof. Szeptycka entered the field of cosmic ray research with impetus and, through detailed reports, which she demanded every week and at a certain period even twice a week, and long telephone conversations, tried to understand as precisely as possible what we were dealing with. Soon afterwards, she began to propose her own ideas, becoming one of the "flywheels" of our team.

Professor Szeptycka was (it is strange to write about her in the past tense) a very warm and kind person, but she had a habit of arguing hard and speaking her mind straight to the point. We tried to keep up with her, so our discussions with her were sometimes lively and even heated. This gave us a great deal of satisfaction and taught us how opposing opinions could be argued firmly but without anger.

Professor Szeptycka was the doctoral supervisor of two members of our team: Karol Jędrzejczak (2011) and Marcin Kasztelan (2019). Then, due to the pandemic, our contacts became more remote, but the conversations started many years ago at Hoża continued throughout. This unfortunately cannot be replaced by anything. We would like to express our thanks and gratitude.

We remain saddened.

To the Professor's family and close friends we offer our condolences.

Karol Jędrzejczak, Marcin Kasztelan, Jacek Szabelski and the team of the NCBJ Laboratory in Łódź

Biographical note of Professor Maria Szeptycka

Prof. Maria Szeptycka was born in Dziewiętniki, Bóbrka (or Bobrka) district (now Ukraine) on 13 December 1936, the daughter of Jan Leon and Zofia Wielopolska. She died on 23 January 2022 in Warsaw.

She graduated from the Mikołaj Kopernik First General Secondary School in Krosno, and then in 1955-59 studied physics at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University.

Titles, functions and awards:

• On 6 January 1964, she received her PhD in Mathematics and Physics from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Warsaw, for her thesis entitled "Study of hyperon-antihyperon production in pp interactions at 3.0 and 3.6 GeV/c".
• On 18 October 1971, she habilitated before the Council of the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw on the basis of her thesis entitled "Comparative analysis of pi-proton interactions of high multiplicity" (application of the Veneziano model to the description of interactions with production of many mesons).
• On 25 November 1992 she was awarded the title of Professor of Physical Sciences.
• From 1 January 1986 to 11 October 1989, she served successively as post-director and head of the Department of High Energy Physics at the IPJ.
• She was a member of the Scientific Council of the IBJ in the term 1987-1992.
• By the resolution of the State Council of 5 September 1984, she was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit.

Scientific work

After graduating from the physics department of the Jagiellonian University, she went to Geneva to CERN for several years as a scholarship student (1960-1963). Her first publication appeared in 1960 in the ICHEP conference proceedings.

At that time, she worked in the division (this is what the CERN divisions are called) NP. or Nuclear Physics. There she was active in a group that dealt with counter measurements in particle interactions (as opposed to the TC [Track Chambers] division, which developed data from bubble chambers). She returned from CERN in 1964, and in Warsaw she joined a team led by Professors (then still associate professors) Andrzej Wróblewski and Ryszard Sosnowski at the Institute of Experimental Physics of the University of Warsaw.

On 6 January 1964 she received her PhD in Mathematics and Physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Warsaw for her thesis entitled "Study of the production of hyperons-antihyperons in pp interactions at 3.0 and 3.6 GeV/c". The supervisor was Marian Danysz.

On 1 November 1967 she moved from the UW to the IBJ.

She took an active part in the work of the Warsaw group called WHBCG (Warsaw Hydrogen Bubble Chamber Group), which at that time collaborated with CERN with the so-called Morrison collaboration led by Duglas Morrison studying mainly the interactions of pi mesons in a two-meter hydrogen chamber (first 8 GeV, then 16 GeV). Results from this collaboration (Aachen-Berlin-Bon-CERN-Cracow-Heidelberg-Warsaw) were published in 1969-78.

Maria Szeptycka took an active part in the apparatus work, in particular she constructed - with the help of the then existing workshop in the IBJ pavilion - a scanning table, commonly known as a huloscope, which was used to review films from the chamber qualifying the images for measurements.

On 18 October 1971, she habilitated at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw with the application of the Veneziano model to the description of interactions with the production of many mesons. This was a pioneering period in the application of computers, when in Hoża a team of Jacek Karpiński built the KAR-65 machine. Intensive calculations for her habilitation were carried out on this computer in the internal language (assembler) since the access to GIER machines at the Faculty of Mathematics and in Świerk was quite difficult, while the KAR was ours and, although it was more difficult to use, there were no time limitations.

In 1971, she joined a team participating in the analysis of data from the Dubna two-metre propane bubble chamber, which was installed on the beam of the then new world's largest accelerator in Sierpukhov.

In 1972, she went as a scientific associate to CERN, where she joined Gerhard Fischer's group constructing the SFM (Split Field Magnet) detector on the newly opened ISR (Intersecting Storage Rings) accelerator. This team was later joined by many people from Warsaw.

After returning from CERN, she participated in the analysis of data from the SFM and was supervisor of Marek Adamus' PhD thesis.

She also participated in the MIS (Magnitnyj Iskrowyj Spektrometr) experiment in Sierpuchowo, which studied the interaction of pions with nuclei at high energies.

This was followed by participation in the DELPHI experiment on the LEP (Large Electron-Positron) accelerator at CERN. The large Warsaw team participated in the construction of the HPC (High density Projection Chamber) electromagnetic calorimeter and in the design of the HPC-based detector triggering system, which was the first of its kind at DELPHI. The construction of the detector for DELPHI was the first such large apparatus investment of the Warsaw groups, the production of detectors and so-called accordions was a great challenge. As part of the cooperation, DELPHi published more than 330 articles.

Later, she participated in the preparations for the CMS experiment on the planned LHC (Large Hadron Collider) accelerator at CERN, in particular in the construction and testing of the RPC (Resistive Plate Chambers) detectors, which were used in one of the high-energy muon triggering subsystems.

In later years, Prof. Szeptycka joined the work of the Warsaw neutrino group, taking part in experiments at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory and Kamiokande in Japan.

From the moment the idea of establishing a neutrino group emerged, Prof. Szeptycka took an active part in the discussions and preparations and was an active member of the group from its inception (year 2000).

She has published in the ICARUS and T2K neutrino collaborations. For more than 20 years she was an active contributor to the Warsaw neutrino group, working with its participants on a daily basis, contributing many ideas and initiatives.

During this period, she also worked on neutron background measurements and neutron detection, collaborating with a group from Łódź, where she also supervised PhD students.

From 1 January 1986 to 11 October 1989, she served successively as post-director and head of the High Energy Physics Department at the IPJ. She also lectured at the University of Łódź.

She repeatedly participated in international conferences.

She was co-author of several hundred publications from experiments in which she participated.

As mentioned above, Professor Maria Szeptycka was born in Dziewiętniki, Bóbrka (or Bobrka) district - now Ukraine - on 13 December 1936, the daughter of Jan Leon and Zofia Wielopolska.

During the War, her father was in the USSR, from where he left with the Anders Army. He served in the 10th Medium Artillery Regiment, 5th Border Rifle Division in the Second Corps of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, and went through the Italian campaign. After the war he emigrated to South Africa, where he died in Pretoria in 1980. His mother went to join him and returned to Poland after his death. Hula visited her parents in Africa around the mid-1970s.

She was a great-great-granddaughter of Aleksander Fredro. Famous members of her family include, first and foremost, Lieutenant General Stanislaw Szeptycki and the Metropolitan of Lviv and Halych of the Greek-Catholic rite, Andrzej, or rather Roman Maria Aleksander Szeptycki.

General Count Stanislaw Szeptycki (1867-1950), commander of the Lithuanian-Byelorussian front in the war of 1920, settled in Korczyna in 1926 after the May events that resulted in the seizure of power in Poland by Marshal Piłsudski, who was in conflict with him. He was buried in the local cemetery.

Professor Maria Szeptycka was the last of her family to live permanently in Korczyna with her mother Zofia and brothers Paweł and Andrzej. She graduated from the Korczyna primary school and the Mikołaj Kopernik I High School in Krosno. She left Korczyna to study in Kraków in 1955.

She had two brothers: Paweł (1935-2004), professor of mathematics (he left after the war for the USA), and Andrzej (1939-2008), professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and at the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences near Kraków.

He has a son Andrzej. Andrzej works at the UW in the field of political science, dealing especially with topics concerning Ukraine and France.

See also: Interesting information on the Szeptycki family