Professor Romuald Cwilewicz

Rector of Gdynia Maritime Academy, 2008-2012

Occupation and Return to Gdynia

Professor Romuald Cwilewicz was educated at the 2nd General Secondary School in Gdynia, before graduating with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Engineering at Gdansk University of Technology. He was born on 5th October 1939 in Gdynia, from where his family fled to the village of Cyranka near Rzeszów to escape the German occupation. His father, Bolesław, was a customs officer within the free customs zone. The family returned to Gdynia immediately following the war. After graduating Romuald Cwilewicz worked in the construction office of Gdynia Shipyard as a shipbuilder and later senior shipbuilder, where he provided technical oversight for the shipbuilding process and resolved issues in the construction of ship power plants.

In 1966, he began work as a senior assistant at the Rotary Heat Machines Plant at the Gdansk University of Technology Shipbuilding Institute

Gdynia Maritime Higher School

The following year, he joined the staff at the Gdynia Maritime Higher School as a lecturer. In 1993, he gained a postdoctorate at the Institute of Fluid-flow machinery of the Polish Academic of Science in Gdansk for his dissertation on the optimal thermal cycle for marine propulsion gas turbines. In 1994, he was promoted at the Maritime Higher School (from 2002, Maritime Academy) to professor, a role he held until 2005). In 2005, he was granted the academic title of Professor of Technological Science, by the President of Poland.

During the years 1997-1990, he held the position of director of the Institute for the Technical Exploitation of Ship Power Plants, and from 1990 until 2017, he was the head of the Department of Ship Power Plants.

From 1990 to 1996, he served as deputy rector for education, and in 1999 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Marine Engineering. He then returned to the role of deputy rector for education for the following two terms, 2002-2004 and 2004-2008. In 2008, he was elected rector of Gdynia Maritime Academy as well as Chair of the Council of Rectors of Pomerania.

The scientific work of Professor Cwilewicz concerned the determination of diagnostic methods and monitoring and control apparatus in ship systems diagnostics. The professor’s areas of scientific interest also included the use of gas turbines in shipbuilding.

Scientific Author

Professor Romuald Cwilewicz is the author or co-author of over 190 scientific publications, including 2 scientific dissertations, 3 monographs, 25 international articles, 1 patent, 30 papers and 87 scientific research reports. He also supervised three doctoral dissertations.

Professor Cwilewicz was an active member of scientific associations and organisations, including the Gdańsk Scientific Society (since 1988), the Gdynia Society of Friends of Science (since 1992), the Environmental Team of the Exploitation Fundamentals Section of the Polish Academy of Science’s Engineering Committee and the Maritime Technology Team of the Polish Academy of Science’s Transport Committee

Awards and Medals for Outstanding Achievements

For his scientific, organisational and teaching achievements, Professor Cwilewicz received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1995), the Gold Cross of Merit (1989), the Medal of the National Education Commission (1986), a medal for the 80th anniversary of Maritime Education in Poland (2000) as well as the following awards: Minister/Head of the Maritime Economy Office (1982), Minister of Transport and Maritime Economy (1995), Minister of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy (2012).