Maksymilian Siła-Nowicki (9 October 1826 – 30 October 1890) was a Polish zoology professor and pioneer conservationist in Austrian Poland. His major studies were on the beetles and lepidoptera of eastern Galicia and later in life, he was involved in the conservation of the fauna of the Tatra Mountains. He was the father of the poet Franciszek Nowicki and a brother-in-law of Franciszek Kasparek law professor and rector at Kraków University.
Career
Nowicki was born in Jabłonków in eastern Galicia. He went to the local gymnasium and entered the University of Lwów in 1848 to study law but political problems forced him to quit studies. He then taught in the countryside of eastern Galicia (1852-63), at Brody, later in Płotycz near Tarnopol, and then found an opportunity to research at the University of Vienna and in 1863 he received a doctorate from the University of Lviv and became a professor of zoology at Kraków University (1863–90). He collected specimens for the Dzieduszycki museum in Lviv (1873). In 1873, he was inducted into the Kraków-based Academy of Learning. Also in 1873, he co-founded the Tatras Society (Towarzystwo Tatrzańskie). In 1879, he founded the National Fishing Society (Krajowe Towarzystwo Rybackie) and through it he worked on fishing zones, fishing regulations, and stocking of game fishes. His greatest academic achievements were in entomology, ichthyology and ornithology.
Nowicki sought to give a practical bent to his research. He wrote: "In the interest of husbandry in this country, it is appropriate to develop a knowledge of animals that are harmful to husbandry... and of animals that are useful to [it]." It was chiefly thanks to him that the Galician Sejm in 1868 passed a law protecting chamois, marmots and Alpine birds in the Tatra Mountains.
Nowicki was the initiator of, and driving force behind, the Physiographic Commission (Komisja Fizjograficzna) of the Academy of Learning, and was a member of many other learned societies.
Notes
References
"Siła-Nowicki, Maksymilian," Encyklopedia Polski (Encyclopedia of Poland), Kraków, Wydawnictwo Ryszard Kluszczyński, 1996, , pp. 615–16. "Nowicki-Siła, Maksymilian," Encyklopedia powszechna PWN (PWN Universal Encyclopedia), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1975, vol. 3, p. 312. "Nowicki-Siła, Maksymilian," Encyklopedia popularna PWN (PWN Popular Encyclopedia), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1962, p. 711. Evenhuis, N. L., 1997 Litteratura taxonomica dipterorum (1758-1930). Volume 1 (A-K); Volume 2 (L-Z). - Leiden, Backhuys Publishers 1; 2 : VII+1-426; 427-87 Volume 2: 562–563, Portrait and Schriftenverzeichnis
External links
Polish Ethological Society article, in Polish, giving extensive details of Maksymilian Nowicki's adventurous, inspiring life.