Portland Polonia

Small does not mean insignificant, however!

Vibrant, active and vocal members of PLBA represent wide variety of interests and professions, among others: scientists and scholars, artists and musicians, physicians and contractors, sportsman and politicians, each excelling in their disciplines.

Please meet few of them: 

Jerzy Kolinski

Senior Systems architect at Intel Corporation in Portland Oregon responsible for definition and development of next generation Ultrabook computer systems.

Jerzy has completed three years of his studies in Electronics at Politechnika Slaska in Gliwice, Poland. After coming to US he completed his studies receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Masters of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Portland State University.

 

Throughout his carrier at Intel as the hardware engineer, technical manager and systems architect, Jerzy developed new architectures and technologies to advance computer systems. His team demonstrated the first portable notebook computer capable of playing DVD movies, demonstrated power efficient systems using 10x less energy (computer sleep mode) which is now used by all the computer systems worldwide. He also developed the first prototypes of scalable servers based on Intel microprocessors capable of processing mainframe workloads. For his achievements in developing power efficient computer systems, he received numerous Intel awards, industry awards and US Government Environmental Protection Agency award from Clinton-Gore administration.

 

Jerzy has also been active in Polish community leading Polish festival and organizing summer camps for Polish children and their families. He likes windsurfing, skiing and playing tennis. He won Annual Polish Tennis tournament master division twice. 

TED WINNOWSKI

2002-2008 Honorary Consul for the Republic of Poland in Portland, Oregon.

Thanks to Ted’s commitment, generosity and steady support, Polish community has flourished.

His participation in a 2008 meeting of local businesses’ representatives with the US ambassador Victor Ashe and Polish delegation has opened doors for new investments in Poland.

Strategic Partner at Veber Partners, Ted recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Centennial Bank, and Centennial Bancorp, Portland, Oregon.

He directed a Key Corp bank in Long Island, New York, before his assignment in Oregon. President and CEO of Key Bank of Oregon and Key Bank of Washington, executive of Key Bank, Northwest then joined Centennial Bank.

JERZY SZUMOWSKI

Jerzy Szumowski, Ph.D. - Professor and Chief MRI Physicist at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR. Instrumental in the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) diagnostic technology and clinical applications, holding several patents in MRI. In his free time he enjoys windsurfing, snowboarding and tennis.

Besides his impressive career in physics, good humored Jurek (Urick) has been a mastermind of the potato pancakes stand at the Polish Festival. Dedicated and committed to the Polish cause, always having plenty of new ideas, he is the one to thank to for the freshly fried delicatessen.

To contact Jurek: jurek@ohsu.edu

AGNIESZKA LASKA

Choreographer and dance teacher, founder of the Agnieszka Laska Dancers Group in Portland, Oregon. Her works have been presented in North America and Europe, most recently she had her perfomances at the Imago Theatre and PLBA.

Ms. Laska's studies in classical ballet were with Jerzy Maria Birczynski, Raissa Kuzniecowa, Andre Glegolski, Danuta Pisecka and Jaroslaw Piasecki. She studied the Limon technique with Carla Maxwell, Risa Steinberg, Aaron Osborn and Alan Danielson. Studies in Graham technique were with David Earle, Susette Shermann and Eva Pardave. She studied Cunningham with Douglas Dunn. She holds academic degrees from the Music Academy, Warsaw and B. Nowodworski College, Cracow.

She is also regularly engaged for guest workshop/lecturers at various schools and institutions, such as Los Talleres de Coyoacan, Mexico City (2000); Faculty of Fine Arts, State University of Queretaro, Mexico (1998 & '96); the Polish-German Workshop for th e Physically Impaired (1997); State School of Dramatic Arts, Cracow, Poland (1994 -'96).

Ms. Laska has received prestegious career achievement awards from the Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts, the Polish Ministry of Education, both the city and state of Cracow; a 1998 1st prize from the Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts Award, for her Masters Thesis: "Jose Limon - his life and art" and a 1989 Wyspianski Youth Artistic Prize (national award), for achievements in modern dance in Poland.

To find out more about Agnieszka and her future presentations, log in to her web site: http://aldancers.org/

MAŁGORZATA CHRZANOWSKA-JESKE 

Currently a Professor and the Department Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Portland State University. She is on the Board of Governors of the Circuits and Systems Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers )IEEE), the largest international professional organization for electrical engineers.

Malgorzata received her Master of Science in Electronics degree for the Technical University of Warsaw (Politechnika Warszawska), and Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering degree form Auburn University in Alabama.

Through out her carrier she has been very active in various student and professional organizations, including being a scout troop leader in Poland, and holding leadership positions for student tourism and science activities in Warsaw. She is also involved in many technical committees and has organized professional conferences all around the word. When not busy with her professional life she enjoys skiing, tennis, windsurfing, biking and travel.

Malgorzata’s attitude and spirit as a PLBA member, best desribes her welcome note to new students:

"Set in the midst of Oregon's Silicon Forest, PSU's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department leverages the resources of high-tech industry to support a diverse teaching and research program. (...) Together, faculty and students continue to explore tomorrow's emerging javascript:noop()technologies."

You can contact Malgorzata at: jeske@ee.pdx.edu

MAREK PERKOWSKI

is one of six PSU professors to be awarded the 2008 Excellence in Community-based Research award. The award is giving to faculty members or teams who use their research to aid in the growth of the community. Dr. Perkowski's award is based on his ongoing work with a group of 12-15 year olds in the subjects of intelligent robotics and quantum computing. Many of the students have presented papers at international conferences and have received numerous awards, including Yale Fan who was awarded a $50,000 scholarship from the Davidson Fellow Laureate Project.

Marek, as an actor, participated in many PLBA’s stage theatre productions.