August Witkowski was born in Brody, the city, which then belonged to Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, part of the Habsburg Empire. The secondary education he acquired in Brody in 1872, and then became a student of The Engineering Faculty of Technical University in Lviv. Engineer diploma he acquired in 1877, and at the same time he gained a position of professor's assistant in Department of Geodetics Engineering. Shortly he entered Lviv University, where he studied the mathematics and physics. Owing to very good results of his education, he acquired a scholarship in Berlin. He continued there studies under Gustav Kirchhoff direction. Next he moved to Great Britain for one-year studies under William Thomson-Lord Kelvin direction. After his return to Lviv he was shortly qualified as an assistant professor and at the age of 33 he acquired a degree of associate professor. Next year he was invited by the Jagiellonian University and moved to Kraków. He was appointed professor and chairman of Department of Physics of the Jagiellonian University. In 1889 he became associate member and in 1893 a fellow of Akademia Umiejętności in Kraków. In 1892 the Jagiellonian University and in 1912 Technical University granted him a "doctor honoris causa" degree. The foundation of a new building of Physics Department in Jagiellonian University – was mainly Witkowski contribution. That building was the Collegium Witkowskiego named after him. Shortly after his death, he was proclaimed its patron. In 1920 and 1921 he was also made a patron of two high schools in Poland: August Witkowski V High School in Krakow and August Witkowski Geodetic school in Jarosław. In 1910 he became a rector of the Jagiellonian University. He died in 1913 and was buried at the Rakowicki Cemetery.
Works
He worked mostly as an experimental physicist. His research interests concentrated mostly in the physical properties and laws concerning gases especially in low temperatures. In this way, he contributed also in meteorology by his research of expansion and compressibility of atmospheric air and by his investigation of thermodynamic properties of air He was interested as well in electric phenomena in atmosphere. He ran investigation of atmosphere electricity in mountain environment. His research activities were also connected with new achievements of his Polish colleagues Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski who condensed and liquefied oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and other gases in a recordlow temperature of −225 °C. He was interested in optical properties of liquified gases He investigated as well acoustic properties of compressed air – speed of sound in air etc. In addition to his main contribution to experimental physics, he also ran in later years of his scientific activity some interesting theoretical enquiries concerning e.g. the physical fundamentals of harmony, the principle of relativity and the electromagnetic fundamentals of light. The main Witkowski achievements as academic teacher were a three volumes of handbook of physics, which were the basis of academic education of several generations of Polish physicists. He published also mathematical and physical tables for students.
Selected works
Wiadomości początkowe z gieografii fizycznéj i meteorologii, Warszawa, 1884;
Thermomètre électrique pour les basses températures, Cracovie, 1891;
Sur la dilatation et la compressibilité de l'air atmosphérique, Cracovie , ed. Jagiellonian University;
O mierzeniu niskich temperatur, Kraków, 1891, ed. by Akademia Umiejętności;
O rozszerzalności i ściśliwości powietrza, Kraków, 1891, ed. by Akademia Umiejętności;
Propriétes optiques de l'oxygéne liquide by Karol Olszewski and August Wiktor Witkowski, Cracovie, 1892;
Zasady fizyki – vol.1–3, Warszawa, 1892–1912, ed. by Księgarnia E. Wende i S-ka;
O własnościach optycznych ciekłego tlenu – by Karol Olszewski, and August Wiktor Witkowski, Kraków 1893, ed. by Akademia Umiejętności;
Sur la dispersion de la lumière dans l'oxygène liquide by Karol Olszewski and August Wiktor Witkowski, Cracovie, 1894, ed. Jagiellonian University.
O własnościach termodynamicznych powietrza, 1896;
O oziębianiu się powietrza wskutek rozprężenia nieodwracalego, Kraków 1898, ed. by Akademia Umiejętności;
O prędkości głosu w powietrzu zgęszczonem, Kraków, 1899, ed. by Akademia Umiejętności;
O podstawach fizycznych harmonii, Warszawa 1899, ;
Spostrzeżenia nad elektrycznością atmosferyczną w Zakopanem, Kraków 1902, ed. by Akademia Umiejętności;
Tablice logarytmowe i goniometryczne czterocyfrowe, Warszawa, 1903, ed. by "Wiadomości Matematyczne" ;
Tablice matematyczno-fizyczne, Warszawa 1904, ed. by "Wiadomości Matematyczne" ;
Sur la dilatation de l'hydrogène, Cracovie 1905, ed. Imprimerie de l'Universite;
O rozszerzalności wodoru, Kraków, 1905, ed. by Akademia Umiejętności;
Elektryczność i magnetyzm, Kraków 1905, ed. "Kółko matematyczne",
O zasadzie względności, Kraków, 1909, ed. by Akademia Umiejętności;
Teorya elektromagnetyczna światła, Kraków 1910, ed. by H. Scherer & K. Zurzycki;
