EN
Wiktor Grygorenko was born on March 6, 1927. He passed his final high school exam in Katowice in 1949 and after a military training he began his studies at the Military School of Topographers. Then he studied geodesy at the Military Engineering Academy in Moscow. Having returned to Warsaw in 1959, he worked in the Military Cartographic Works and later in the Topographic Board of the General Staff of the Polish Army. Simultaneously, he took a lecturer post at the Military Technical Academy in Warsaw where he elaborated student textbooks on maps editing, cartographic reproduction, and mathematical cartography. His comprehensive manual Elaboration of general geographical maps was published in 1970. He was a member of the editorial staff at the popular World Atlas, published in 1962-1968 and also known under the name of Pergamon World Atlas. A new and innovative projection devised by Wiktor Grygorenko was used in the World Atlas, nowadays known as the projection of the Polish Army Topographical Service. In 1971 he obtained the degree of a Doctor of Technical Sciences in cartography at the Warsaw University of Technology. The subject of his thesis were theoretical fundamentals of the automatic cartographic data processing. Wiktor Grygorenko was one of the Polish pioneers of computer usage in cartography and was the author of many valuable papers on the subject. He began to work at University of Warsaw in 1972, In 1978 he completed his habilitation procedures on the basis of his dissertation entitled Quantitative Parameters of the Cartographic Content Composition in which he formulated the idea of the quantitative model of a map, thus drawing a new direction of theoretical and practical works in cartographic design and evaluation. Many papers on cartographic generalisation with usage of computer methods were created under his guidance. In 1980, three years after the unexpected death of professor Lech Ratajski, Wiktor Grygorenko became the Head of the Chair of Cartography at the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies. In 1981 he became the Vice-dean for student affairs and served two terms. His first term fell in the difficult period of the martial law when he defended students on many occasions, gaining their gratitude and respect. In autumn 1982 he also became the Head of the Department of Cartography at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, which he administered until 1992. Making a good use of his broad didactic experience, he published several absorbing articles on educating cartographers with the geographic training. He actively participated in conferences, conventions, and cartographic trainings, animating discussions with his inspiring speeches. In summer 1982, during the 11th conference of the International Cartographic Association in Warsaw he presented the paper Cybernetic model of cartographic communication that was in certain degree a continuation and an explication of professor Lech Ratajski's idea of communication model. The main field of professor Grygorenko's (he obtained the professorship in 1992) scientific interest were theoretical issues related to the automation of the maps editing and usage processes. His interest in the history of cartography resulted in the publication of several interesting papers on the subject and participation in meetings of cartography historians. He served many social functions both at the University of Warsaw and among the geodesists and cartographers. Professor Wiktor Grygorenko died on February 25, 2008.