About Us

Tradition

Mathematics has been taught in Kraków at the university level for some eight hundred fifty years. First in the Kraków Cathedral School, and then at the Jagiellonian University (Kraków Academy), where in 1405 the first institute of mathematics in the world has been established.

Among those who studied mathematics at the Jagiellonian University were such widely acclaimed scientists as the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski or mathematician Wacław Sierpiński.

The following mathematicians were lecturing here: : Franciszek Mertens, Stanisław Zaremba, Kazimierz Żorawski, Franciszek Leja, Otton Nikodym, Tadeusz Ważewski, Stanisław Gołąb, Stanisław Łojasiewicz, Zdzisław Opial and Andrzej Lasota.

The Institute of Mathematics is also home to one of the oldest student organisations in Poland, the Association of Mathematicians - Students of the Jagiellonian University.

Nowadays

Our Institute is situated in one of the most modern buildings of all European institutes of mathematics. The building was built in 2008 and is the part of the 3rd Campus of the Jagiellonian University.

Due to this fact our students find the most comfortable conditions to study:

  • Well equipped, air-conditioned audition rooms and computer laboratories,
  • Over 60 computer workstations for individual use, with access to the Internet, numerous data bases, online journals and utility programs
  • Large library with quiet rooms for individual work
  • Convenient timetables
  • Small laboratory groups
  • Wireless Internet (since October 2009)
  • Building accessible for disabled people

Our faculty has been granted the first science category by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

In 2012 the 6th European Congress of Mathematics, co-organised by our University, was held in Kraków.

International Workshop for Young Mathematicians is also organised here annually.

Kraków

Kraków, hometown of the greatest Polish mathematician, Stefan Banach, was voted by readers of the Guardian, prestigious British newspaper, second most interesting city of the world (overtaken only by Sidney, but followed by San Francisco, Singapore and Vancouver).

There are over 200 thousand students in Kraków, including 46 thousand at the Jagiellonian University, the best university in Poland and the only one that belongs to the Coimbra Group that gathers the oldest high schools in the world.

Kraków, called a city that never sleeps, is also a cultural, repose and fun centre – where, apart from libraries and lecture rooms, you will find cinemas and theatres, museums and galleries, pubs, cafés and students' clubs. The city is famous for the biggest medieval market square in Europe, the royal castle on the Wawel hill, magic Old Town and fashionable Jewish quarter in the Kazimierz district.