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Professor Żernicki described himself as a “physician by education, physiologist by profession, but admirer of psychology and philosophy”. His most known and cited research concerned the pretrigeminal preparation. He proved that brain, isolated from the majority of sensory stimuli, preserves its basic behavioral functions and continues to learn. He studied also the perceptive and associative mechanisms of learning after deprivation of pattern vision at early developmental stages, elaborating the role of subcortical visual pathways in visual development. Professor Żernicki conducted research at the University of Pisa, University of Paris, Chilean University in Santiago, University of Rochester, and the University of Nice. He supervised NIMH grants for the Nencki Institute, hosted many foreign scientists, and organized several international conferences and meetings. Professor Żernicki was an author of more than 100 papers on central mechanisms of conditioning, isolated brain, physiology of the visual system and developmental neurophysiology. He also wrote four books in the Recent Discoveries of Science series, many chapters, textbooks and articles on policy in science. As a mentor in neuroscience he supervised 11 PhD theses. Most of his pupils continue research work in tenured positions in and outside the Institute. Several generations of neurophysiologists from the Nencki Institute were inspired by his scientifi c passion, talent for research and organization.