Banach Center and its mother institution, IMPAN (Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences)

Stefan Banach International Mathematical Center, traditionally known as the Banach Center, forms an integral part of the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IMPAN).The institute was established in 1948, as the independent State Mathematical Institute, and in fact predates its umbrella institution, the Polish Academy of Sciences, created in 1952.IMPAN has originated in plans put forward by the leading figures of the world-famous prewar Polish school of mathematics, such as Kazimierz Kuratowski, who was in fact the first director of the institute.Since its inception, IMPAN has continuously remained a top mathematical institution in Poland and one of the most important research centers in Central and Eastern Europe.Currently, it employs over 20 permanent research faculty, around 20 mathematicians on long term (tenuretrack type) contracts, and almost 40 short-term researchers, mostly postdoctoral students, but also visiting professors.It continually hosts several national and international grants; notably, the only three individual ERC grants in mathematics in Poland were awarded to researchers based at IMPAN.The institute is also a partner in two doctoral schools, one joint with the University of Warsaw, the other, smaller and focused on applied mathematics, with the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.The Warsaw headquarters of IMPAN is located in a historical building in the city center, which pre-1939 used to belong to the Warsaw Scientific Society, and hosted the Radiological Laboratory formally led by Maria Skłodowska-Curie, and the laboratory of Edward Flatau, the father of Polish neurology.Here also one can find the Central Mathematical Library, one of the biggest mathematical libraries in Eastern Europe, and the Publishing House of IMPAN, issuing nine international journals, including the 'golden three' of the Polish mathematical tradition, all established in the 1920s: "Fundamenta Mathematica," "Studia Mathematica" and "Acta Arithmetica," but also the series Banach Center Publications devoted to research produced by the visitors of the Banach Center.