Szczepan Aleksander Pieniążek (1913–2008) was a Polish pomologist, professor of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, and a vice-president of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He was a pioneer in Polish horticulture, which was in need of reform after World War II. Having studied in the United States, Pieniążek brought to Poland innovative solutions to various fruit-growing problems. In his scientific research, he generally focused on pomology, plant physiology, and conservation of orchards. He published over one hundred publications, including an academic handbook "Horticulture". Studies and scientific interests After graduating with a Master's in Biology at the University of Warsaw in 1938, he received a scholarship from the Jozef Pilsudski National Culture Fund and left for the United States, where he continued his studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (1938–1942). After defending his doctoral dissertation entitled "Transpiration of apples in cold storage" in 1942 he accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Horticulture at Rhode Island State College (now University of Rhode Island), where he worked until the spring of 1946. After the end of World War II, he returned to Poland in April 1946 and began working at the Faculty of Horticulture at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences as an associate professor and head of the Department of Horticulture. He served as the dean of the Faculty of Horticulture between 1965–1966. During the anti-Semitic and anti-student campaign of the March 1968 Polish political crisis, he defended the Jewish relegated students and, together with several other professors, signed a letter to the government protesting the expulsion Jewish professors from the university. As a result of pressure from party authorities, he was forced to resign from his position at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. After the founding of the Institute of Pomology in Skierniewice in 1951, he became its first director and held this position until his retirement in 1984. In 1952 he became a member of the Polish United Workers' Party, and in 1954 he obtained the title of full professor. In 1947, Szczepan Pieniążek established cooperation with the Church of the Brethren, an American religious organization, with which he established a Polish-American agricultural exchange. As a result of this cooperation, by the end of 1989, over 1,300 people, mainly Polish farmers, left for annual internships in the USA. A one-year and sometimes longer stay in the USA allowed them to learn about