History of the Faculty

The beginnings of the Faculty date back to the late 1940s, when it was Department of Agricultural Mechanics and Machine Science at that time belonging to the Faculty of Horticulture of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, it was based at 74 Hoża Street in Warsaw. The didactic and research functions for the needs of the Department were fulfilled by the Experimental Station of Agricultural Tools and Machines established for this purpose, located at the Agricultural Experimental Station in Kłudzienko. In 1947, after moving the Department to the buildings at the back of the university at ul. Rakowiecka, there was a difficult period in the unit’s activity. In 1948. arose Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture took over the station in Kłudzienko and the premises Department of Mechanics and Agricultural Machines . By losing its material base, the Department ceases to be an independent research and teaching unit.
As a result of the reorganization of the university in 1951. The Faculty of Agriculture was divided into the Faculty of Animal Science and the Faculty of Agriculture, to which it was transferred Department of Mechanics and Agricultural Machine Science . In 1954. the name of the cathedral was renamed to Department of Agricultural Mechanization , and the management was entrusted to doc. Dr. Inż. Tadeusz Nowacki. Initially, classes were held in the premises of the SGGW farm in Brwinów, and then in substitute rooms at the back of the University at Rakowiecka. The change of location of the Department took place in 1957, after receiving rooms in Ursynów in block 7 (currently the building of the Faculty of Economic Sciences). Efforts to expand the housing base led to the creation of some studios and laboratories in the buildings of the experimental farm. These buildings – storage rooms, pigsty, stable, coach house – after many reconstructions and adaptation works for many years became the seat of the Department, then the Institute and the Faculty.

The growing interest in the issues of agricultural mechanization testified to the need to develop this field of study and contributed to the steps taken by the university and the Faculty of Agriculture to create an independent unit with such a profile of activity. In the academic year 1969/70 at the Faculty of Agriculture was established Department of Agricultural Mechanization and 30 students were admitted for the first year of study. As part of further reorganization of higher education structures in the fall of 1970. Department of Agricultural Mechanization was transformed into the Institute of Agricultural Mechanization, and the management was assumed by prof. Dr. Tadeusz Nowacki.

The commencement of the systematic recruitment of students to the Department of Agricultural Mechanization led to the creation of the position of Vice-Dean for Branch. From 1974 to 1977 this function was performed by doc. dr hab. Krzysztof Majka.

During this period, the University authorities decided to create new independent study courses. One of them was to be education in the field of mechanization of agriculture and forestry. He was to provide teaching staff in the field of agricultural mechanization Institute of Agricultural Mechanization operating within the Faculty of Agriculture and in the field of Mechanization of Forestry Department of Mechanics and Machine Operation functioning as an inter-faculty unit.

Department of Mechanics and Operation of Forest Works he continued to act Department of Mechanization of Forest Works which was established in December 1957 as a unit Of the Department of Forest Utilization Faculty of Forestry of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Its founder and first manager was Mieczysław Botwin, a doctor of technical sciences at the time. In 1972, as a result of reorganization changes at the University Department of Mechanization of Forest Works has been incorporated into the newly created one Institute of Forest and Wood Machines Of the Faculty of Wood Technology, and then in 1957 transformed into an interdepartmental unit, adopting the name Department of Mechanics and Machine Operation . Dr. Eng. Jerzy Więsik.

On October 1, 1977, it was established Faculty of Agricultural and Forest Technology . On that day, students of the Department of Agricultural Mechanization at the Faculty of Agriculture became students of the newly established Faculty of TRiL. The newly established Institute of Agricultural and Forest Mechanization became a research and didactic unit of this Faculty. It includes the existing units of the University: Institute of Agricultural Mechanization and Department of Mechanics and Machine Operation .

First Dean Faculty of Agricultural and Forest Technology became prof. dr hab. Janusz Haman, who was also the director of the Institute.
At the beginning of its existence, the Faculty had only one independent research and teaching unit: Institute of Agricultural and Forest Mechanization with 9 plants as an internal structure. In 1982, by the decision of the Senate of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, the Faculty was joined Institute of Applied Mathematics and Statistics which until then was an inter-faculty unit.

In the academic year 1983/84, as part of the internal restructuring of the Faculty, aimed at creating larger and strong units, the Departments were merged. In 1985/86 Institute of Applied Mathematics and Statistics was divided into smaller units and incorporated into other Departments.

An important event in the life of the Faculty was the fact that in 1987 it was granted the right to confer the academic degree of doctor of agricultural sciences in the discipline of agricultural technology. In 1989, the first “own” doctoral student was Dr. Aleksander Lisowski.
The year 1991/92 brought major changes to the University. In connection with the new act on higher education, the Senate of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences adopted a new statute specifying the principles of creating a new cathedral structure of units.

On January 1, 1992, a new organizational structure of the Faculty was approved, consisting of three departments – Department of Agricultural Machines, Department of Mechanization and Energy of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Process Engineering – and one independent Department of Forest Mechanization . The above organizational structure lasted until 1999 with minor changes.

The 1999/2000 academic year brought far-reaching changes at the Faculty. The reorganization introduced by the Rector affected all the Departments. Once again, striving to create large and strong units, on January 1, 2000, three two-department departments were created on the basis of the existing units. The simultaneous economic changes in the country and the related increasingly demanding and competitive labor market for university graduates required taking necessary actions leading to a change of the profile of the Faculty graduate towards a modern manager. Systematic changes gave rise to the establishment of a new field of study, inclined in terms of management and production engineering, which also led to the Rector’s order of December 29, 1999. to change the name of the department to Faculty of Production Engineering . The change of the name of the Faculty was accompanied by the creation of three departments – the Department of Fundamentals of Engineering, the Department of Organization and Production Engineering, and the Department of Agricultural and Forest Machines.

Within this unit, activities related to the further expansion of the Faculty were continued.
The most important scientific achievement was the fact that on March 17, 2005, he was granted the right to confer the academic degree of habilitated doctor in agricultural sciences in the discipline of agricultural engineering.