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Ph.D., Dr. habil., fellow of the Polish Academy of Sciences, professor emeritus of anthropology, born in 1943 in the Lower Silesian village of Dąbrowa Górna (Ober Dammer), near town of Lubin. He studied ethnography at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, especially Latin American issues, under the supervision of professor Maria Frankowska, the founder of Polish Americanistic studies. After graduation in 1965, he worked at the Institute for the Western Affairs and then started his doctorate studies, completed in 1974 at the same university. In 1982 he got the higher doctorate (Doctor Habilitatus) at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology (one of the research center of the Polish Academy of Sciences) in Warsaw. He worked for this institution for many years as a researcher and at the same time for the Poznań university as an academic teacher. In 1992 he achieved the highest academic rank in Poland – the title of State professor,  awarded by the President.

He mastered his anthropological competences in Spain, Germany, Russia, but mostly in the U.S.A, where he was twice affiliated with the University of Minnesota (as a grantee of Kosciusko Foundation and Fulbright Foundation), and with University of Chicago (as a grantee of American Council of Learned Societies.  In 2007 he was elected to the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), and in 2010 he also became the fellow of the Polish Academy of Art and Sciences (PAU). In the period between 1993-2007 he served as a chairman of the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Poznan. After his retirement in 2013, is still active in the life of academia and functions at the university as a professor emeritus. He has promoted 15 doctors,  published a couple of books as author and editor, as well as many articles and chapters. He has been for several years the chairman of the Committee of Ethnological Sciences, at the Polish Academy of Sciences (the highest official representation of anthropologists and ethnologists in the country).

His research interest embraces a few different fields: ethnicity and migration studies (including Polish diaspora), history of ethnology and anthropology (Polish experiences mostly), and the main area – Latin American studies (studies of native peoples of the Andes). He carried out field works in the United States, Kazakhstan, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile. He was decorated with the Golden Cross of Merit (2014), and Gold Medal for Long-standing Service (2011). His more detailed academic biography and list of research achievements has been presented in a jubilee volume (Ethnos and Potentia) published in 2013, as well as in the documentary movie released in 2015 as part of the cycle “Outstanding University People” .