Wednesday, April 14, 2021
The Secretariat of the Minamata Convention expresses its condolences on the passing of Prof. Lucyna Falkowska, key leader of mercury research in Poland and Professor at the Faculty of Oceanography and Geography of the University of Gdansk. She passed away on April 7 at the age of 70.
Prof. Falkowska was a trailblazer in studying the behavior and effects of mercury in the environment in Poland. Her wide research included oceanography, marine and atmospheric chemistry, marine ecology, trace metal in biota, and maternal transfer of xenobiotics. Internationally, her research made major contributions to the understanding of the risk of mercury contamination in the Baltic Sea ecosystems. In this way, her work contributed to the development and implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
A committed educator and student mentor, Prof. Falkowska was also very engaged in the promotion of science through the organization of national and international conferences on mercury exposure and effects, including the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP), organized in Krakow in 2019.
Her activities and commitment made her a valued member of the Minamata Convention family and she will be sorely missed.