Ignacy Łukasiewicz - patron of PCN

Ignacy Łukasiewicz - patron of the Podkarpackie Science Centre 

Ignacy Łukasiewicz is a benefactor and visionary from the Podkarpacie region who inspires people to take up creative challenges, discover scientific potential and develop their own creativity. This exemplary scientist became the patron of the Podkarpackie Science Centre, which is a place of experimentation and awakening of the passion to discover the phenomena and processes that govern the universe. 

Ignacy Łukasiewicz is a figure of great stature - not only an eminent scientist, but also a Polish patriot dedicated to society and his family. He was born in 1822 in Zaduszniki near Tarnów. He lived most of his life in the Podkarpacie region. This founder of the world's oil industry was also known for his local activity and commitment to independence. As a young man, a devout Christian by the way, he was not cut off from the problems of his homeland. He served nearly two years in prison for his conspiratorial activities. After the end of his conspiratorial activities, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to scientific research. Legend has it that even a young John Rockeffeler came from America to study with Lukasiewicz's expert.

The patron of the PCN was a man who always thought of the general good. He respected the local community by creating special social security and pension funds. He carried out extensive charitable and philanthropic activities. He built roads, schools, churches and hospitals - creating new jobs in the process. He combined the profits of technological progress with sensitivity to the dignity and efforts of the people around him. He financially supported the renovation of public buildings, paid for teaching staff, and bet on the development of education in the Podkarpacie region. With all these activities, he experimented with paraffin distillation. This initially modest chemist unexpectedly became the inventor of a new type of lamp that burned paraffin. 

In March 1853, he quickly used it to illuminate the pharmacy "Under the Golden Star" in Lvov. A short while later, in 1854, he opened the world's first oil mine in Bóbrka near Krosno, and his first distillery in Ulaszowice near Jasło. Both towns are located in today's Podkarpackie Voivodeship. It was thanks to this Pole that oil was recognised as a valuable energy resource for the first time in the world. In addition to paraffin, Łukasiewicz also produced lubricants and oils for machines, asphalt and gudrin (a type of paraffin) from oil. These were pioneering achievements on a world scale, awarded with a medal and a diploma of appreciation for his services to the oil industry at the Universal Exhibition in Vienna in 1873.

He died suddenly in full creative force on 7 January 1882 in Chorkówka, near Krosno, of pneumonia. His grave is located in the cemetery in nearby Zrębin. In the aforementioned Bóbrka near Krosno, there is the Ignacy Łukasiewicz Museum of Oil and Gas Industry - in this, the world's first and still operational oil mine, you can learn about the details of oil drilling techniques, the history of oil lamp construction, oil processing and the life of Ignacy Łukasiewicz.

Following the example of the legend of Ignacy Łukasiewicz, the Podkarpacie Science Centre wishes to stimulate interest in science in future generations. The PCN also aims to promote the Podkarpacie region, in particular its scientific, cultural and natural heritage. The PCN team aims to become a high-class interdisciplinary institution inspiring international society to personal development and to create a good future based on commitment to learning about the world, making continuous attempts to understand it, developing socially responsible attitudes towards the environment and the changes taking place around us.