Dr. Waclaw Tadeusz Szybalski was born September 9, 1921 and raised in the then city of Lwów, Poland, the son of Michalina Rakowska Szybalski, a crystallographer, and Stefan Szybalski, an electrical engineer. Waclaw received a BS in chemical engineering in 1944 at the Institutes of Technology in Lwów, Poland. He received a MS in chemical engineering in 1945 in Gliwice, Poland; and a doctorate in 1949 in Gdansk, Poland, all during the extremely difficult period of World War II.
After short periods as a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Technology in Copenhagen, Denmark, Szybalski was able to escape the Stalinist regime in Poland and immigrate to the United States in 1950. He immediately found work as a scientist at Wyeth Inc., West Chester PA, and then joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from 1951-1955 as a staff member. Szybalski worked alongside Nobel Prize winners James Watson, Barbara McClintock, Alfred Hershey, Max Delbrück, and Salvador Luria. At CSHL in 1952, Szybalski met his future wife, Dr. Elizabeth Hunter, a fellow scientist. They were married in 1955.
Waclaw made major contributions to the fields of molecular biology and genetics. His prolific research output in the United States began with genetic studies of drug resistance that led to the use of multi-drug therapy that is now widely used to treat bacterial and viral infections and cancer. His studies of the antibiotic-producing soil microorganism, Streptomyces, yielded information that was useful in the commercial production of streptomycin, an effective therapeutic for treating tuberculosis. Waclaw and Elizabeth were the first researchers to perform gene transfer into mammalian cells (using HAT medium) and to introduce the ground-breaking idea that treatment for human genetic diseases could be made possible through gene therapy. His work laid the foundations for several Nobel Prizes won by others.
Waclaw retired in 2003, and held the rank of Emeritus Professor of Oncology and of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he received the highest honor awarded in Poland, becoming a Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta, First Class, presented by President Komorowski of Poland, one of five Polish Presidents that he met in his life. He also received five honorary doctorates from leading universities in Poland.
Waclaw contributed to the advancement of molecular genetics both in the United States and Poland, and remained a strong patriot of both countries to the end of his life. Waclaw passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 99 on December 16, 2020. He was preceded in death by his wife, Elizabeth. He is survived by his three children: Jolanta Fabicka, Barbara Hunter-Sandor, and Stefan Hunter.