Professor Tadeusz Orlowski--in memory of a pioneer in European nephrology and transplantation.

Tadeusz Orlowski, 90, died of congestive heart failure on July 30th, 2008, in Warsaw. In him, Europe has lost a great authority in modern medicine and a committed researcher with a deep dedication to patient care. Orlowski was born on September 13th, 1917, in Kazan (Russia), as son of Prof. Witold Orlowski, the later founder of the Polish School of Internal Medicine. The young Tadeusz studied medicine during the Second World War in Warsaw and completed his physician diploma at the Medical Faculty of the Josef Pilsudski Polish Underground University in 1943. Under the Nazi Occupation he was active in the counter-espionage for the Polish Government in exile in London, adopting the nom de guerre of ‘Spaga’. During the Warsaw Uprising he fought as a soldier of the Home Army (Polish Resistance Organisation), where he tended the wounded. For both of these life-threatening activities the patriot Orlowski received numerous decorations. Afterwards he worked as assistant at the Clinic of Internal Medicine of the University of Warsaw, chaired by his father. In 1963, at the age of 46, he advanced to professor ordinarius and in the same year took up the post of Head of the Clinic of Internal Medicine. From 1975 to 1987, Orlowski chaired the Institute of Transplantation, which he founded with the support of the Polish Academy of Sciences [1] . This leading transplantation institute – with all aspects of kidney, pancreas and liver transplantation – flourishes to this day under Published online: October 1, 2009