Ludwik Hirszfeld in the National Institute of Hygiene in 1920-1941

In this year, we commemorate the 130th anniversary of birth and 60th of death of Ludwik Hirszfeld, a prominent Polish scientist. Since 1920, he was the head of the Department of Bacteriology and Experimental Therapy of the National Institute of Hygiene (NIH). During the absence of Ludwik Rajchman in Poland, who was assigned to the League of Nations, he was a factual director of the NIH. Ludwik Hirszfeld governed the scientific, organizational and didactic activities in the Institute. Concurrently, he collaborated with research centres abroad, especially within the field of public health. Mission of the NIH was concentrated on a broadly defined issues aimed at combating infectious diseases, initiating and developing the production of sera and vaccines, their controlling and introducing to the country as well as training health care personnel.