My Professional History

Andrzej My name is Andrzej Roslanowski, I look very much like the person on the picture, just somewhat older (the picture was taken in San Diego, California, on January 11, 1997). I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics , University of Nebraska at Omaha.

I am a Polish American, as you may guess from my name. I was born, I grew up and I was educated in Poland. I think you may learn a lot about my background if you just visit Poland:

[President of RP]     President of the Republic of Poland

[Poland]     Poland Home Page

[Poland]    Poland Online                     [Poland]    Poland
To be more precise, I was born and grew up in Wroclaw, a city in South-West Poland. I believe that it is a very nice city and I really miss it. Your virtual visit to Wroclaw may start here:

[Wroclaw]     Wroclaw - meeting place                                                   [Wroclaw]     Wroclaw

For first 30 years of my life I did not think I would ever leave Wroclaw. I got my elementary education there ( Szkola Podstawowa nr 55 and then Szkola Podstawowa nr 9), and then since 1975 through 1979 I was attending III Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im Adama Mickiewicza, one of the finest high schools in town. I had to work like crazy studying things way above my abilities. At the end I was somewhat surprised how good education I got. I loved my Teachers already then, but today I just know and see that they were (almost) always right when they pushed us to study, study, study. The way I relate to Mathematics today was partially shaped by all my teachers in III LO. I think they did good job. (I will write more about my Teachers in my personal pages.) In Summer 1979 I passed entry exams to

[Wroc.Univ.]     UNIVERSITAS WRATISLAVIENSIS
(the Wroclaw University) and in Fall 1979 I started my university education in Mathematical Institute of Wroclaw University. From the first day on, a group of very fine Mathematics Professors there worked very hard to make sure I learn what a Mathematician should know. This page is supposed to give you my professional background, so I am looking at my Student Index (a grade book) and I will list you who taught me what. Let me first explain (in case you do not know) that courses in Polish universities are/were typically divided into two parts: Lectures and Exercises (workshops). Some courses are scheduled to end with a final exam and then student's work during a semester only provides admission towards taking the final exam. In this case the grade given for a course depends entirely on the final exam, which in most cases consists of two parts: written (up to several hours) and oral. Usually courses are two (or more) semesters long.

  Number of Number of hours per week  
Subject semesters (lectures/exercises) Professor
Mathematical Analysis I 1 4/4 M. Bozejko
Foundations of Mathematics 1 2/2 B. Weglorz
Algebra I 2 3/3, 4/4 A. Derdzinski
Foundations of Computer Science 2 2/2, 2/1 J. Kucharczyk
Topology 2 2/2 J.J. Charatonik
Differential Equations 1 2/2 T. Nadzieja
Mathematical Analysis II 3 4/4 M. Bozejko
Partial Differential Equations 1 2/2 H. Marcinkowska
Algebra II 3 2/2 E. Dobrowolski
Infinite games and determinacy 1 2/1 B. Weglorz
Differential Geometry 2 2/2 R. Duda
Functional Analysis 2 3/3, 2/2 M. Bozejko
Probability 2 3/2, 2/2 J. Szulga
Forcing 2 1/1 J. Cichon
Descriptive Set Theory 2   J. Cichon
Logic with Hilbert's $\varepsilon$-symbol 2   A. Zarach
Jonsson Extensions 2   B. Weglorz
Logic 1 2/2 J. Cichon
Topological Fields and Rings 2   W. Wieslaw
Facultative Seminar 2 0/2 B. Weglorz
Seminar: Inverse Systems 2 0/2 T. Mackowiak
Seminar: Topology 2   T. Mackowiak
Seminar: Combinatorics 2   B. Weglorz
The Russian Language 3 0/2 J. Iwaszko
The English Language 4 0/2 R. Szczepanski
Economics 2 1/1 R. Sorgenstein
Philosophy 2 2/2, 0/2  
The Humanities 2 1/1  
Military Training 2    

I graduated in 1984 and I got hired in Mathematical Institute of Wroclaw University (as a Teaching Assistant). I spent one year (May 1985 - May 1986) serving in Polish Army, but except that period I was mostly working on problems that could lead to a PhD dissertation. See, Ph.D. degrees in Poland are/were awarded on a basis of research presented in a thesis; no course work is required. The thesis is supposed to contain new and significant results. Before a public defense of the thesis, the defender is supposed to pass the following exams: a comprehensive exam on mathematics (mostly in the area of expertise of the defender), an exam on foreign language (in my case it was the English language) and an auxiliary exam on a subject from a list provided by the University (in my case that was Economics). Anyway, sometime in 1990 my PhD Dissertation was essentially completed, papers were accepted to journals and I was ready to start something new.

In January 1991 I left Poland for Israel. I went to

[Bar IlanUniversity]
Just for a couple of months....  But soon it became clear that I would stay in Israel longer than originally planned. At the beginning I was working with Haim Judah and a group of young mathematicians that he collected in the Bar Ilan-University: Around 1992/93 I started cooperating with Saharon Shelah. In 1993, we moved from the Tel Aviv area to Jerusalem (to be closer to Saharon) and for the next 4 years (theoretically and practically) I worked in
[Heb.Univ.]    THE HEBREW  UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Working with/for Saharon is a very special experience. I got so addicted to it, that even today, years after I left Israel, I still try to do the same thing I was doing then in the period 1993-1997: work with/for Saharon. The only problem is that I do not have that much time now.... See, we could not stay for ever in Israel and in Summer 1997 we moved to the United States. More precisely, we came to Idaho. I got a visiting position in Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Boise State University, a natural place for a set theorist (then and now). I went to BSU because of Tomek Bartoszynski but the logic group there was stronger. Randall Holmes, Masaru Kada, and Marion Scheepers were also my company then. In 1999 I received a tenure-track position in the Department of Mathematics of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In July 1999 I moved to Omaha, Nebraska, couple of months later Gosia followed me and we settled in our new place - this time I hope it will be for ever.

Andrzej Roslanowski

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Last modified: Fri Aug 19 11:55:45 CDT 2005