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Bill Johnston
Polish Studies Center
812-855-1507

George Vlahakis
IU Media Relations
gvlahaki@indiana.edu
812-855-0846

Last modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Poland's ambassador to U.S. to visit and speak at IU Bloomington

Poland's ambassador to the United States will visit Indiana University Bloomington on Monday (April 7) to present a lecture and to honor the director of IU's Polish Studies program.

His Excellency Przemyslaw Grudzinski will speak on the subject, "Poland and the Future of Transatlantic Relations," at 7 p.m. in the Georgian Room of the Indiana Memorial Union, located at 900 E. Seventh St. The IU Office of International Programs, the Polish Studies Center and the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis are serving as hosts for his visit.

Immediately following the lecture, he will decorate Patrick O'Meara, dean for international programs, and Bill Johnston, director of the Polish Studies Center and assistant professor of applied linguistics, with an award from the Polish embassy, the Amicus Poloniae.

The public is invited to the lecture and a reception afterwards in the University Club. For more information, call 812-855-1507.

Grudziski also will speak in Indianapolis on Tuesday (April 8) at 4 p.m. at the Hudson Institute's Herman Kahn Center, 5395 Emerson Way. There he will speak on the topic, "Poland and the United States: Strange or Natural Allies." Seating is limited at the Hudson Institute event. Contact Debbie Price at 317-549-4103 or dprice@hudson.org for more information.

Grudziski has been Polish ambassador to the United States since September 2000. Prior to this assignment, he was undersecretary of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Grudziski has been a lifelong educator, political activist and scholar of geopolitics. From 1976 to 1996, he was professor of history at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

During the 1980s, he became involved in independent publishing activities as a member of Solidarity, which contributed decisively to the fall of Poland's communist government and hastened the break-up of the Warsaw Pact. In 1990, Grudziski became an adviser to the deputy minister of defense. In 1991, he became the director of the Bureau of Research for the Polish Parliament, and then deputy minister of defense.

He has been a visiting fellow and a Fulbright Fellow at Princeton University, and a visiting professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. He was a founding member of the Euro-Atlantic Association and the Council on Foreign Policy in Warsaw.