Prof. Legocki has been nominated to be the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences (abbr. PAS) for the years 2003-2006. In 1990-1996 he was the Vice-President of PAS and in 1996-2002 the President of the Poznań branch of PAS.

In the years 1988 - 2003 he directed the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (abbr. IBCh) of PAS in Poznań, one of the leading research sites for structural and molecular biology in Poland. Currently he is the head of the Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory of IBCh.

His first Ph.D. student, now a professor - Tomasz Twardowski, is the President of the Polish Biotechnology Federation.

VACCINES IN LUCERNE AND LETTUCE

Interested in molecular biology and biotechnology of plants, Prof. Legocki became famous for his research on symbiosis of papilionaceous plants and nitrogen fixing bacteria.

He came to identify and sequence several plant genes (mostly of lupine) and bacterial genes involved in the symbiosis processes. His research also helped to resolve the mechanisms of symbiotic stress.

Using the genetics engineering methods he conducted research on novel vaccines from transgenic plants – lucerne and lettuce. Such modified plants, holding transgenic genes, produced viral proteins.

“Of course, plant producing viral proteins cannot cause any infection when eaten” – assures Prof. Legocki.

Instead, these plants play a protective role – providing the human or animal with a viral protein or its fragment, to boost the immunological reaction and the formation of antibodies.

Prof. Legocki believes that public protests against transgenic plants result from insufficient knowledge and misunderstanding of the entire concept. “The term “genetically modified food” is bad enough to cause some reluctance”.

He emphasizes that agricultural plants with genetically modified elements are more resistant to diseases and pests, and as such could be a great chance to humanity, especially for developing countries where the shortage of food is still a big problem.

IN THE WORLD OF CHEMICAL REACIONS

In 1961 Andrzej Legocki graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the University of Poznań. His Master\\'s thesis in bioorganic chemistry concerned the use of infrared spectroscopy in the analysis of alkaloids.

During his university years he also traveled to Warsaw and Cracow, where he participated in numerous seminars in chemistry.

“It was a wonderful time, being engaged in academic science clubs. Some of the active participants of these clubs are now remarkable scientists, such as Prof. Marek Tadeusz Krygowski, physical chemist, or Prof. Andrzej Sadlej, quantum chemist.”

“In 1953 the model of DNA structure was resolved and in 1961 the genetic code. This was a triumph of reductionism, where everyone believed that all biological phenomena could be explained by single chemical reaction” – he recalls.

Molecular biology was then much related to physics of the early 20th century. Reference was made to the Niels Bohr model of atom structure and theoretical physics of Louis de Broglie and Erwin Schroedinger. The scientists soon learned that the mechanisms of heredity are universal for all cells and thus could be used to describe all biological phenomena. The physicists believed that the structure of a single atom could be extrapolated to the entire Universe. The similar approach was taken on by the biologists who wished to extrapolate the complexity of nature from its molecular basis.

“Now, after 40 years, we know that this concept was impossible to realize” – admits Prof. Legocki – “Reductionism is being replaced by more holistic concepts.

”The scientific interests of Andrzej Legocki were greatly influenced by the prime discoveries of molecular biology. Thus he decided to focus his Ph.D. studies on protein biosynthesis. He worked for a year in the industrial laboratory of Herbapol to learn about the natural substances. “Since then my entire scientific career has been about biochemistry and molecular biology”.He believes that science never starts out of nothing, although the development is very dynamic and new discoveries quickly replace the older ones. “Knowledge is being built gradually, consequently accumulating the critical mass needed for a turning point. The dialogue between different areas of science is equally important” – he adds.

FAN OF CARUSO

Prof. Legocki was born in 1939 in Rychwał, commune near Konin, where he spent his early childhood with his mother. His father met him only after the World War II.

The father of Prof. Legocki had large impact on his son\\'s interests in humanities. “This is the heritage of my home. I grew up learning to love the opera music and since then I never part with the arias of Enrico Caruso, Monserat Caballe, Maria Callas or Beniamino Gigli.

”It was also his father that enabled Prof. Legocki, as well as his two brothers and two sisters, to learn music. “Each one of us played an instrument. I played the violin, my sister the piano. She is now a professional pianist”. Andrzej Legocki also studied art from the famous Poznań artist Włodzimierz Bartoszewicz.

Art is a constant search for truth, he claims. “It\\'s the same with science. But then, the truth could be reached from many different directions.” As a manifest of this concept, Prof. Legocki has been leading the Board of the National Museum in Poznań for several years. Prof. Legocki is the author of over 220 research papers and approximately 200 news releases, as well as co-author of several patents in plant biotechnology.

He was awarded the honorary doctorate from the University of Agriculture in Poznań, the Warsaw Agricultural University, and recently – the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. He is the member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and Academia Europaea. The wife of Prof. Legocki, Jolanta Legocka, is also a scientist. She is the professor of plant physiology of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

Joanna Poros, trans. Zuzanna Stasińska