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Maria Pogonowska

Maria Pogonowska was a Polish-Israeli physicist who in 1924 became the first doctor promoted by the Department of Physics at Warsaw University.

1897 to 2009First physics doctorate at Warsaw UniversityResearch in opticsSurviving the Holocaust under a false name

Born: 30 October 1897, Warsaw
Died: 15 July 2009, Tel Aviv
Occupation: physicist
Education: Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw

Maria Pogonowska was born in 1897 in Warsaw

Maria Asterblum was born in Warsaw to an assimilated Jewish family. Her father Maurycy studied law, and her mother was Salomea.

In 1915 she began studying physics at Warsaw University, one of 4 women in the first year. She earned her doctorate in 1924 under Stefan Pieńkowski. She then worked as a senior assistant in experimental physics and published papers on optics.

In 1927 she married Mieczysław Proner, a pharmacy lecturer, and their daughter Janina was born in 1929. Proner was captured by the Soviets in World War II and killed in Kharkov in 1940. Maria and Janina lived outside the Warsaw Ghetto under the name Pogonowska and were later held in a labor camp in Bunzlau until February 1945.

After the war she worked at a home for chronically ill children in Warsaw and helped plan and build its new house. She retired in 1962 and later taught classes at the Medical Academy of Warsaw.

In 1968 she moved to Israel with her daughter's family. In 1994 she took part in a tree planting near Jerusalem in memory of Katyń. She died in Tel Aviv in 2009.