The Senate celebrated the 120th anniversary of the birth of Prof. Mieczysław Bekker

The Senate decided on Wednesday to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the birth of Prof. Mieczysław Bekker - engineer, scientist and participant of the September campaign.

The Senate adopted a resolution to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the birth of Professor Mieczysław Bekker. 83 senators voted in favor, no one voted against, and one person abstained.

Born in 1925 in 1905 in Strzyżów near Hrubieszów, Bekker graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology in 1929, did his military service at the School of Sapper Cadets in Modlin in 1929-1931, and was then employed at the Institute of Engineering Research, where he conducted research on new vehicles for the army. He worked as a lecturer at the Military College of the Warsaw University of Technology, launching the Special Vehicles Laboratory. He gave lectures at the Warsaw School of Military Engineering. Until the outbreak of World War II, he cooperated with the Ministry of Military Affairs, and participated in the September Campaign of 1939.

After reaching France, Bekker was employed in the Tank Department of the Ministry of Armaments in Paris, and in 1942 he left for Canada. "With the consent of the Polish government in exile, in 1943 he joined the Canadian army, which he left in 1956, having the rank of lieutenant colonel. That same year he left for the USA, where he worked in the Military Laboratory of Off-Road Vehicles and gave lectures. In a short time he became a professor at the University of Michigan and director of the Research Institute of the General Motors automobile concern," the draft resolution recalled.

"In 1961, as part of the NASA competition for a lunar vehicle in the Apollo program, he and his team undertook work under his leadership that resulted in the construction of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV)" - we read. The Polish engineer was the author of the technical solutions that ensured the movement of the LRV on the surface of the moon. Bekker was a member of the scientific council of the President of the United States, and cooperated with military institutions of the USA and Canada. He died in Santa Barbara, California in 1989 at the age of 84.

The Senate of the Republic of Poland - it was emphasized - wants to recall his figure and merits, which aims to "raise awareness of the global merits of Poland and Poles for modern technologies and strengthen the aspirations of the world of science to a subjective presence in Polish social and economic life. The information society currently being built poses new challenges for us, among which creativity in science and economy is of fundamental importance. Scientific research and its implementation in the modern economy will determine the strength of societies, nations and states. Therefore, the Senate of the Republic of Poland encourages young people to be inspired by this extremely modern figure". (PAP)

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