Jaśkiewicz Jan was a botanist, doctor, chemist and theologian. He was born in Lviv in 1749, died in Krakow in 1809. He was the most outstanding Polish mineralogist and chemist during the Enlightenment. He graduated from medicine in Vienna. Later, he moved to Krakow and lectured at the Main Crown School (today the Jagiellonian University), natural history and chemistry, as well as mining and metallurgy. He also made numerous scientific trips to Italy, Austria and France.
Achievements of Jan Jaśkiewicz
- organization of medical studies and medical practice
- taking care of the equipment of research offices
- establishing and enriching the mineralogical collections at the Jagiellonian University
- organization of the Botanical Garden, of which he later became the director
- preparing a map of coal seams in the vicinity of Siewierz, coal mining and using it for metallurgical production
- the first hard coal coking attempts in Poland
- co-organization of the first balloon flight in Poland