Jacek Rajchel
Jacek Maria Rajchel was a Polish geologist, author and educator who specialised in biostratigraphy, lithology and geological structure recognition of the Carpathian Mountains, and architectural applications of earth materials—especially those in the southern Polish city of Kraków, where he had lived for most of his life.
Education and career
Rajchel was born in Chełm, southeastern Poland, and moved to Kraków at an early age. He graduated from Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School. From 1962 to 1968, he studied at the Faculty of Geology and Exploration at the AGH University of Krakow, specialising in earth materials. During this period, the university's geologist and archaeologist became his mentor.Rajchel defended his doctoral thesis Geological structure of the San Valley in the Dynów-Dubiecko area and was awarded with the AGH rector's prize, in 1978. He acquired his habilitation on the basis of the monograph Lithostratigraphy of sediments of the upper Palecene and Eocene of the Skole Unit described the use of rock resources in Kraków in extensive detail, revealing the city's potential advantages in geotourism.