Mirosław Jan Stasik (1929–2023). Doctor, toxicologist and promoter of science

Mirosław Jan Stasik was born in Lódź on 27 January 1929. He was the only child of Roman Stasik, an office worker for a factory administration bureau, and Marianna Stasik, née Jurkiewicz. During the Second World War, when he was just 14 years old, he was conscripted into forced labour by the German occupiers. For two years, he worked as a courier for the Geyer factory in Lódź. After the war ended, he attended a boys’ grammar school, (Gimnazjum Męskie im. prez. Gabriela Narutowicza), where he passed his school-leaving exam in 1948. In 1953, he completed his medical studies at the Lódź Medical Academy. The following year, he married Liliana Stasik (née Hansel), who later became a doctor. Their son Jacek was born in 1955. From 1956 to 1962, Mirosław Stasik worked at a specialist voivodeship clinic (Wojewódzki Specjalistyczny Szpital im. Mikołaja Pirogowa) in the department of internal medicine. In 1962, after specialising in internal diseases, he became head of the newly established department for acute intoxication at the Institute for Occupational Medicine (Instytut Medycyny Pracy, IMP) led by Prof. J. Nofer in Lódź, where he conducted pioneering work in the field of toxicology and toxicological information in Poland.

Emigration
 

In 1969, Mirosław Stasik travelled to Switzerland on holiday with his wife and son. The family decided to remain abroad and emigrate to West Germany. There, they spent a year in Heidelberg before moving to Rüsselsheim. Liliana Stasik worked there as a doctor at the Opel car factory. In 1982, the Stasiks moved to Niedernhausen near Wiesbaden, to a house designed by their son Jacek, who at that time was still a young architect. After taking a course in German in Heidelberg, Mirosław Stasik joined the chemical company Hoechst AG in Frankfurt/Main, where he headed the centre for toxicology and epidemiological research into the development of cancer. His research focused on determining the carcinogenic potential of certain aromatic amines and disinfectants. While working for Hoechst AG, he completed an internship at the Institute for Toxicology of the Julius Maximilian University in Würzburg, and gained his doctorate at the Ruprecht Karl University in Heidelberg in 1972. On his request, the company also sent him on a course of study to the University of Surrey in Guildford in the UK, which he completed in 1978 with a diploma in toxicology. During the 1980s, Stasik represented Hoechst AG at numerous scientific conferences and was also an advisor to and member of various scientific bodies in Brussels.

In December 1987, Dr Stasik stopped working due to ill health, before later going into full retirement.