Project description
The research is supported by the the National Science Centre (grant no. 2014/13/B/HS3/04951) entitled Od programu pomocowego do embarga strategicznego. Społeczność międzynarodowa wobec dążeń krajów Środkowej i Wschodniej Europy do uzyskania penicyliny po II wojnie światowej [read more]
Book
Sławomir Łotysz, Fabryka z darów. Penicylina za żelazną kurtyną 1945-1954, Warszawa: Aspra JR 2020 [in Polish]
Other publications
Knowledge as aid: Locals experts, international health organizations and building the first Czechoslovak penicillin factory, 1944–9 In Jessica Reinisch and David Brydan (eds.), ‘Europe’s Internationalists: Rethinking the History Internationalism’, London: Bloomsbury 2021, ISBN: 978-1-3501-0736-6, pp. 140-157. DOI: 10.5040/9781350118546.0016.
A bargain or a ‘mousetrap’? Reused penicillin plant and the Yugoslavians quest for a healthier life in the early post-war era (1946–1950) In Stefan Krebs and Heike Weber (eds.), ‘The Persistence of Technology. Histories of Repair, Reuse and Disposal’, Bielefeld: Transcript 2021, ISBN: 978-3-8376-4741-9, pp. 187–205. DOI: 10.1515/9783839447413-010
Penicylina. Sukces nauki zorganizowanej, “Mówią Wieki”, Speciall Issue 1 (2021), pp. 108-113 [PDF]
Desert Mould: Witold Odrzywolski and His Work on Crude Penicillin in a Military Hospital in the Middle East in 1944, „Kwartalnik Historyczny” Vol. 127, No. 4 (2020): 77-103. DOI: 10.12775/KH.2020.127.SI.1.03.
Penicylina i protezy. Pomoc UNRRA w odbudowie polskiego przemysłu medycznego po II wojnie światowej, „Kultura Współczesna: teoria, interpretacje, krytyka,” No. 3 (2018): 118-130 DOI: 10.26112/kw.2018.102.10
Kraków czy Tarchomin? Historia sporu o lokalizację fabryki penicyliny przekazanej Polsce w ramach programu pomocowego UNRRA (1946–1947), “Analecta: Studia i Materiały z Dziejów Nauki” Vol. 23, No. 1 (2018): 289-310. [abstract]
Rzeczoznawcy budowlani w sporze o lokalizację pierwszej polskiej fabryki penicyliny, „Materiały Budowlane” No. 3 (2018): 64–65. DOI: 10.15199/33.2018.03.26
International Health Organizations and the dissemination of penicillin production methods in the early Cold War era. The case of UNRRA activities in Europe, and the work of ABMAC in China (in Chinese: 国际卫生组织与冷战初期盘尼西林 生产方式的传播 – 以联合国善后救济总署在欧活动和美国 医药援华会在华事务为例 – Guójì wèishēng zǔzhī yǔ lěngzhàn chūqí pánníxīlín shēngchǎn fāngshì de chuánbò – yǐ liánhéguó shànhòu jiùjì zǒng shǔ zài ōu huódòng hé měiguó yīyào yuán huá huì zài huá shìwù wéi lì), „Journal of the Social History of Medicine and Health” (医疗社会史研究 – Yīliáo shèhuì shǐ yánjiū), Vol. 2, No. 1 (Jun. 2017): 3-31.
Sailors and syphilis on Europe’s waterways. International Health Organizations and the Rhine Commissions, c. 1900-1953, “Hygiea Internationalis”, ISSN 1403-8668 Vol. 13 nr 1 (2016), s. 49-64 [PDF]
A ‘Lasting Memorial’ to the UNRRA? Implementation of the Penicillin Plant Programme in Poland, 1946–1949, “ICON: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology” Vol. 20, No. 2, (2014): 70-91. [full text at JSTOR]
Controlling the Production and Distribution of Drugs in Communist Poland, “Medicina nei Secoli” Vol. 26 No. 2 (2014): 519-556. [full text]
Historia ekstraktorów Władysława Podbielniaka, „Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki” Vol. 56, No. 2 (2011): 117–142. [full text]
Conference papers
Prime movers or cogs in a machine? Doctors, scientists, and engineers in forging international rehabilitation programs, a paper at the 25th International Congress of the History of Science and Technology, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2017.
Agents or actors? How Czech scientists helped shape UNRRA’s penicillin plant programme, 1944-49, a paper at the 7th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, ‘Science and Power, Science as Power’, Prague, Czech Republic, September 2016.
Penicillin is not enough. The role of international organizations in fighting STDs in early post-war Europe, a paper at the 43rd ICOHTEC Annual Meeting ‘Technology, Innovation, and Sustainability: Historical and Contemporary Narratives’, Porto, Portugal, July 2016.
Spreading the strains of life. International Health Organizations and the dissemination of penicillin production methods in the early Cold War era, a paper at the conference ‘International Health Organizations (IHOs): People, Politics and Practice in Historical Perspective’, Shanghai, China, April 2016.
We need to think of what exactly we need to plan’: Designing pharmaceutical consumption in Poland’s centrally controlled economy, 1945–1989, a paper at the 42nd ICOHTEC Annual Meeting, Tel Aviv, Israel, August 2015.
Reinterpreting the history of penicillin production in Eastern Europe, a paper at the ‘Chemical Reactions: Chemistry and Global History: the 2014 Cain Conference for the History of Chemistry’, Philadelphia, USA, March 2014.
Penicillin production and policy in post-WWII Poland, a paper at the workshop ‘Drugs and Cold War. Science, standards and politics in Europe’, Rome, Italy, November 2011.
Podbielniak – a centrifuge, that made the world head-spin, a paper at the 39th ICOHTEC Annual Meeting ‘Technology, the Arts & Industrial Culture’, Barcelona, Spain, July 2012.
American reaction to the rise of an independent antibiotic industry in Eastern Europe in the late 1940s, a paper at the Business History Conference, Philadelphia, USA, March 2012.
An embargo that built an industry: Battle Act and the first penicillin plant in Poland, a paper at the workshop ‘Beyond the Magic Bullet: Reframing the History of Antibiotics’, Oslo, Norway, March 2011.