Professor Emeritus Dr. Teresa Kowalska, full professor at the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, passed away suddenly in Katowice on 11 February 2023. She was a highly recognized and esteemed scientist, a person of wide interests, and an outstanding lecturer.

Professor Dr. Teresa Kowalska was born in 1946 in Gliwice, Poland. She studied physical chemistry at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the Pedagogical University in Katowice, where she prepared her Master of Science thesis on “Spontaneous Biosynthesis of Vitamin C in Plant Material,” and in 1968, she obtained a master’s degree in chemistry. Dr. Kowalska practiced all of her scientific and professional work at the University of Silesia in Katowice. In 1972, she defended her dissertation entitled “A Comparison of Autoxidation Process for the selected cis-9-octadecene Derivatives” and was granted a PhD degree in chemistry. In 1974, she obtained a 1-year postdoctoral scholarship from the British Council and worked under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Hans Suschitzky at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Salford in Great Britain. She received her habilitation degree based on the dissertation “A New Thermodynamic Model of the Chromatographic Process and its Applications”. The habilitation colloquium took place in 1988 at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland. Returning from England, she started her academic career as an assistant professor (1990–1991) at the University of Silesia in Katowice, where she soon became an associate professor (1991–1999).

In 1999, she became a full professor; her evaluation was performed by the Faculty of Chemistry of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland), and then the President of the Republic of Poland granted her the title of professor. Between 2000 and 2016, Prof. Dr. Kowalska was a full professor at the Institute of Chemistry of the University of Silesia, where she was a chair of the Department of the Physicochemical Basis of Chromatography from 2004 to 2006, and since 2006 she was a chair of the Department of General Chemistry and Chromatography at the Institute of Chemistry.

During her scientific career Dr. Kowalska published more than 300 scientific papers, most of which appeared in international, peer-reviewed scientific journals from the Philadelphia list. The main focus of her papers was the theory and application of chromatography, particularly planar and column liquid chromatography. The numerous publications of Prof. Dr. Kowalska connected chromatography, and especially planar chromatography, with studies of physicochemical phenomena. The very high scientific value of her publications is shown by 2769 citations and a Hirsh index of 25 according to the Scopus database. Together with her team, Prof. Dr. Teresa Kowalska performed pioneering research on the application of thin-layer chromatography with densitometric detection and other instrumental analytical techniques to study the oscillatory reactions of selected organic compounds. Her other important contributions to chromatography include modeling of solute retention in thin-layer chromatography (TLC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC) and modeling the separation of enantiomers using TLC and HPLC. More recently, her extensive work and achievements were related to identification methods—the so-called fingerprinting of plant materials such as medicinal plant species and analyses of foodstuffs.

Professor Dr. Teresa Kowalska was the Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly Acta Chromatographica (an open access journal of the Institute of Chemistry, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, published by Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary), which is the highest-ranked Polish scientific journal in the field of analytical chemistry by the Thomson Reuters scientific information platform. She was a member of the editorial board of two international scientific journals, Journal of Planar Chromatography—Modern TLC and Chromatography Research International. She was also an associate editor of the Journal of Chemical Society of Pakistan. Professor Dr. Kowalska was also a member of the editorial advisory boards of the following recognized journals: Journal of Chromatographic Science, Journal of Planar Chromatography—Modern TLC, Journal of Liquid Chromatography and Related Technologies, Bulgarian Chemical Communications, Acta Universitatis Cibiniensis Series F - Chemistry and Advances in Chromatography, and Electrophoresis and Related Separation Methods (ACE).

She was also a coeditor and a coauthor of five scientific monographs published by one of the largest American scientific publishing houses, Taylor & Francis CRC Press. These monographs include: “Preparative Layer Chromatography” (2006), “Thin-Layer Chromatography in Chiral Separations and Analysis” (2007), “Thin Layer Chromatography in Phytochemistry” (2008), “Chromatographic Techniques in the Forensic Analysis of Designer Drugs” (2020), and “Planar Chromatography—Mass Spectrometry” (2020).

Professor Dr. Kowalska also had great achievements in working with students. She promoted 14 doctors in chemistry. She was a reviewer of over 40 PhD and 70 Master of Science theses. Dr. Kowalska also participated as a reviewer in numerous international PhD procedures (one in England, 11 in India, and 7 in Pakistan) and three habilitation degree procedures.

It is also worth emphasizing Kowalska’s extensive scientific cooperation with foreign centers and universities, primarily in the USA and Belgium. She established significant cooperation with institutions within the University of Belgrade, Republic of Serbia (Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy). These collaborations resulted in numerous multiauthor scientific articles.

With a quick mind and a high intellect, Dr. Teresa Kowalska was also an extremely talented person in other fields. She had a strong grasp of literature, music, and the fine arts. She was also proficient in multiple world languages and translated many literary texts, such as German poems and English novels into Polish. She was also fluent in Serbian and could read Serbian literature in the original language. She knew the Balkan culture and history very well. When asked if she preferred reading Serbian in Cyrillic or Latin alphabet, she briefly replied: “I don’t care!”

Teresa was an attentive listener, remembering even the smallest details of conversations. She was experienced in creating a good atmosphere for discussions, connecting people and ideas. This was also seen at annual chromatographic symposia (from the series Chromatographic Methods of Investigating Organic Compounds) in Szczyrk (Poland), which Prof. Dr. Kowalska chaired many years (2002–2019). Teresa ensured the transfer of organizational skills to the younger generations by involving students in the organization of these symposia. Internationally recognized scientists from Poland and many other countries gave their lectures, and also many young researchers got the opportunity for oral presentations. Of course, a large number of excellent posters that inspired fruitful discussions were also presented. These scientific meetings were unique with sessions and discussions often inspired by Teresa and her skills of attentive listening, as well as the art of asking questions and making appropriate comments.

Professor Dr. Teresa Kowalska left us unexpectedly, deeply shaking the chromatographic research community, professional and scientific public, numerous collaborators, students, and her friends. Her contribution to the development of the separation sciences has been remarkable. Teresa will be remembered as a great scientist, an inspiration and a good friend—someone you could always count on.

Irena Vovk, Danica Agbaba, Mieczysław Sajewicz, and Monika Waksmundzka-Hajnos