She was an outstanding chemist, the first woman in Poland with the title of professor at a technical university and the first dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at TUL, a pupil of Maria Skłodowska-Curie. An inspiring and charismatic personality, an authority for generations of students. In addition to her impressive scientific achievements, Professor Alicja Dorabialska was an excellent organiser and social activist, and contributed to strengthening the position of women in science. She had versatile interests and practised singing.
She was born on 14 October 1897 in Sosnowiec. After moving to Warsaw, she was one of the founders of secret scouting in the capital. She studied at the Society of Scientific Courses, then continued her studies in Moscow at the physics and chemistry faculty of the Higher Female Course. An extremely important figure in her professional life was Professor Wojciech Świętosławski. Dorabialska worked as his assistant in the Department of Physical Chemistry at Warsaw University of Technology. In 1922, Alicja Dorabialska obtained a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Warsaw for her thesis ‘Thermochemical studies on the stereoisomerism of ketoximes’, written under the supervision of Prof. Wiktor Lampe.
In Warsaw, she met her mentor, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, and began working with her at the Radium Institute in Paris, continuing her complementary studies. Upon her return to Warsaw, she was awarded her postdoctoral degree at Warsaw University of Technology in 1928 in the field of physical chemistry, and in 1934 she was awarded the title of associate professor and appointed head of the Department of Physical Chemistry at the Lviv Polytechnic, becoming the first woman professor there.
This promotion caused a widespread stir, paving the way for scientific careers for generations of women to come. During the Second World War, she was a secret lecturer in Warsaw, risking her life, giving shelter to a Jewish woman, and taking care of the wounded in the Warsaw Uprising.
In 1945, she accepted an offer from Prof. Bohdan Stefanowski to head the Faculty of Chemistry at the newly established Lodz University of Technology. She was thus the first woman in the history of our university to hold the post of dean, was appointed full professor and at the same time took over the Department of Physical Chemistry. She was very popular among students, who called her ‘Mama - Mom’. She was distinguished by her extraordinary ambition, courage and uncompromising attitude.
Scientifically, she dealt mainly with radioisotope radiation heat problems, microcalorimetry, allotropic transformations, corrosion of metals and the history of chemistry. She was the author of 128 publications – mainly in the fields of calorimetry, radiochemistry and chemiluminescence, including 5 book studies. In 1968 she received the ‘Problems’ Award for her achievements in popularising knowledge of physical chemistry.
In 1972, she published her memoirs under the title ‘One more life’, in which she wrote:
With a greater or lesser sense of responsibility, everyone shapes the present. Often they do not even realise how far they are laying the foundations for the future.
These words are the motto of the 80th anniversary of Lodz University of Technology.
For her book royalties, she funded a plaque at Warsaw's Powązki cemetery in memory of chemists who died in the East.
Prof. Alicja Dorabialska was involved in the work of societies: Warsaw Scientific Society, an associate member of the Lviv Scientific Society, a member and vice-president of the Lviv Scientific Society, and an honorary member of the Polish Chemical Society. From 1932 she was also active in the Polish Association of Women with Higher Education. She was decorated with, among others: Cross of Independence, Knight's Cross, Officer's Cross and Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
She died in 1975, and is buried at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.
Prof. Alicja Dorabialska will be the heroine of a biographical book on which Prof. Tomasz Pospieszny, the author of a bestseller on the life of Maria Skłodowska-Curie, is working.