Profesor Zdzisław Pazdro – twórca polskiej szkoły hydrogeologii

Professor Zdzislaw Pazdro (1903–1987) is regarded as the creator of the Polish school of hydrogeology. He was born in Lviv. In times of dramatic rebirth of the Polish state, he participated, as a 15-year-old boy, in the defense of Lviv in 1918, and was a volunteer in the Polish-Soviet War in 1920. In 1925, Zdzis³aw Pazdro graduated from the University of Lviv as a geologist and, as an employee of the University, conducted research work on stratigraphy and tectonics of the Carpathians. Over time, his interests turned to economic geology; he participated in the exploration of the Bug Coal Basin in and the prospecting for bituminous minerals. During World War II (1939–1945), he acted in conspiracy in the structures of the Polish Underground State. He was imprisoned by the Gestapo, and then, after the capture of Lviv by the Soviet Army, by the NKVD. He was released as a high-class geologist at the request of the Polish communist authorities. After the war, he organized the first hydrogeological and geological-engineering studies in Poland (Gdañsk University of Technology, in 1952), was the author of the first, highly acclaimed textbook "Hydrogeologia ogólna" (1964), long-standing chairman of the Commission for Hydrogeological Documentations at the Central Geological Office, teacher of several generations of Polish hydrogeologists, and author of regional hydrogeological syntheses and hydrogeochemical reports.