The team’s activities deal with issues related to geomechanics, geotechnics, rock mechanics and the assessment of the impact of underground works on the land surface and buildings.
Many scientific and engineering works are carried out for industry, both in Poland and abroad (including Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the USA).
This allowed us to build a team of specialists with extensive experience and engineering sense, who are not afraid of new challenges. In its work, the team uses analytical and numerical methods based on proprietary programs and the finite element method, adhering to the maxim:
“Finite Element Analysis makes a good engineer great, and a bad engineer dangerous” (Robert D. Cook)
The team has been cooperating with leading scientific institutions from various countries for years.
From the right: K. Unrug (University of Kentucky), A. Sroka, S. Peng (West Virginia University), K. Tajduś, A. Preusse (RWTH Aachen).
From the right: A. Preusse (RWTH Aachen), A. Sroka.
Team members:
Professor Stanisław Knothe (February 2, 1919 – December 31, 2015), full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1951, he completed his doctoral thesis entitled: “The impact of underground exploitation on the surface from the point of view of securing objects located on it”, which became the basis for a very subtle and a clear theory of rock mass movement caused by mining operations. This approach is based on the concept of an influence curve and the selection of an appropriate Gaussian function. The theory has been very well received for predicting surface subsidence problems in Poland and around the world, and has inspired many who have worked on subsidence problems caused by mining activities. This theory is still used today, despite the availability of more advanced numerical methods. Professor S. Knothe was also an expert on mine ventilation.
Professor S. Knothe obtained the degree of Ph.D. in 1954, then associate professor in 1958 and full professor in 1975. He twice held the position of Dean of the Faculty of Mining at AGH, in the years 1958-1960 and 1981-1984, and for many years was the head of the Department of Mine Ventilation.
In 1954, Prof. S. Knothe was invited by prof. W. Budryk to undertake research at the newly established Rock Mechanics Department in Kraków. There he headed the Rock Mechanics Department, the Transfiguration Laboratory and served as deputy director of the Institute until his retirement. His contribution to the development, reputation and international recognition of the Institute of Rock Mechanics was significant. His personal involvement in lobbying for the construction of a new building of the Institute of Rock Mechanics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1968) was decisive.
Professor S. Knothe was elected a corresponding member (1976) and a full member (1989) of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków (1994). He served as a member (1960-2015), chairman (1981-1995), honorary chairman (2003-2015) of the Mining Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and editor-in-chief of the Archives of Mining Sciences (1968-2003). He was invited to participate in scientific councils of institutes and engaged in extensive consultations for state bodies and mining companies. He took part in numerous congresses and symposia in Poland and abroad. Professor S. Knothe was honored with the highest state awards and recognition from the mining community.
Professor S. Knothe passed away peacefully on December 31, 2015. He was buried in Krakow on January 13, 2016 with distinction, in the presence of his family and representatives of the academic and mining communities.
Friends, colleagues and his students will remember him as a man of principles and kindness. Text about Prof. Knothe was taken from an article by prof. Wacław Trutwin
Anton Sroka is a professor at the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. He also worked as a professor at TU Clausthal (Germany) and TU Bergakademie Freiberg (Germany) and as an expert at Deutsche Steinkohle AG (Germany). He is a member of the International Society of Mining Surveyors, the International Society of Rock Mechanics (ISRM) and the International Association of Soil Mechanics and Foundations. Professor Anton Sroka is a graduate of Mining Geodesy at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków (1971). At the same university, in 1975, he obtained a doctorate in technical sciences, and in 2000, a habilitated doctorate in mining geomechanics. In the years 1971-1980 he was an assistant, senior assistant and adjunct professor at the Faculty of Geodesy of AGH. In 1980 he left Poland. In the years 1982-1984 he was a teaching assistant, and in the years 1984-1990 a professor at the Technical University of Clausthal/Lower Saxony. In the years 1990-1999 he worked for the coal company Deutsche Steinkohle AG, responsible for mining extraction planning in terms of minimizing its impact on the surface and rock mass as well as minimizing induced seismicity. He was the head of the research team that conducted research in the above-mentioned field. In 1999, he became a full professor in the field of mining surveying and mining damage at the Technical University of Bergakademie Freiberg/Saxony. In the years 2003-2013 he was the director of the Institute of Mining Geodesy and Geodesy at TU Bergakademie Freiberg. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geotechnics and Mining (2006-2009) and director of the training and experimental mine “Reiche Zeche” and “Alte Elisabeth” in Freiberg (2005-2012). Since 2008, he has been employed as a professor at the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. In 2012, he received the title of professor of technical sciences from President Komorowski. In April 2013, he retired and took up the position of honorary professor at TU Bergakademie Freiberg, remaining a lecturer there, and since mid-2013 he has been a full professor at IMG PAN in Kraków.
Professor Sroka is the author and co-author of over 200 publications in the field of mining geodesy, mining geotechnics and geophysics, as well as computational methods, several dozen scientific and research topics, and many projects and implementations for mining. He was a supervisor of 20 completed doctoral theses and a reviewer of over 20 doctoral theses, as well as a reviewer of many habilitation and professorship proceedings.
He is the organizer/co-organizer of scientific sessions at TU Bergakademie Freiberg, such as Geokinematischer Tag and Altbergbau-Kolloquium, and the originator of the international conference named after Stanisław Knothe.
The topics of his scientific and research work and expert opinions for the domestic and global mining industry or for state offices in many countries mainly concern the calculation of deformations of terrain and rocks and their impact on the surface of objects in the case of, among others:
- exploitation of coal, salt, iron and copper ore deposits,
- exploitation of fluidized beds (crude oil, gas and sulfur),
- tunneling,
- creation of caverns used to store liquid and gaseous energy resources,
- deep geothermal regions, and
- uplift the land surface during mine closure (through irrigation).
Krzysztof Tajduś is a professor at the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the International Association of Rock Mechanics (ISRM), the International Association of Soil Mechanics and Foundations, and an appraiser in the State Mining Complex. Since 2018, he has been the editor of the section (in the field of rock mechanics) in the journal Archives of Mining Sciences (with IF).
In 2003, he graduated from the Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków and obtained a master’s degree in geomechanics. After graduating, he started working at IMG PAN. In 2008, he obtained a double doctorate: in the field of mining and engineering geology at AGH and in the field of geotechnics in Germany at TU Bergakademie Freiberg. In 2016, he obtained his habilitation in mining and engineering geology at the Central Mining Institute. In 2009, he became the youngest member of the Committee at the Mining Office for the state of water and rock hazards in the “Wieliczka” S.A. Salt Mine, and since 2010 he has been a member of the Surface Protection Committee. In 2011-2014 he worked at the Faculty of Drilling, Oil and Gas of AGH University of Science and Technology.
Professor Tajduś is the author and co-author of over 80 publications, about a quarter of which were published in IF journals (in the field of rock mechanics, soil mechanics, mining). He has worked on over 100 industry projects in Europe related to rock mass displacement, rock stabilization, rock bursts, tunneling, hydraulic fracturing, CBM, and in almost 30 national and international research projects. He was a reviewer of 9 doctoral and habilitation theses and almost 40 scientific publications. He is a co-organizer of the Altbergbau-Kolloquium conference and the Conference. Stanisław Knothe.
Rafał Misa is an Assistant Professor at the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow.
Since 2024, he holds the title of Doctor habilitated in Engineering and Technical Sciences, in the discipline of Environmental Engineering, Mining, and Energy. He also holds a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. in Civil Engineering, as well as an engineering degree in Geodesy. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Abertay Dundee in the United Kingdom and his doctoral studies at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow. From 2011 to 2017, he lectured at the Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering at the AGH University of Science and Technology.
Thanks to a one-year scholarship from the Scottish Government, in 2008 he graduated from Abertay Dundee University in Scotland with a BSc with Honors in Civil Engineering. He is a graduate of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow – in 2009 he obtained a master’s degree in construction engineering, and a year later a master’s degree in geodesy. In the same year, he completed postgraduate studies in Innovation Manager at the Warsaw School of Economics. In 2015, he completed doctoral studies in mining and engineering geology, and in 2016, he defended his doctorate in construction at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków.
Since 2010, he has been a member of Professor Sroka’s team at the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, focusing on surface protection against the effects of underground mining. His research interests span a broad range of topics within geomechanics and mining geotechnics.
Dr. Misa is the author and co-author of 47 scientific papers, several research projects (both national and international), over 60 engineering projects, and expert assessments in the fields of coal, ore, salt, and oil mining as well as construction and geotechnics, carried out both in Poland and abroad. Dr. Misa has presented at 22 international conferences and symposia, as well as 10 national conferences.
Dawid Mrocheń has been employed at the Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow since 2021 as an engineering and technical employee.
He is a graduate of the AGH University of Science and Technology, where in 2015 he completed master’s studies in Geodesy and cartography, specializing in Geoinformation and Mining Geodesy. In 2022, he started PhD studies at the AGH Doctoral School as part of the Implementation Doctorate program, conducting research in the field of optimization of determining the parameters of the geomechanical model. He deals with the use and integration of modern and classic geodetic techniques, including: UAV, LiDAR, InSAR, GNSS for the description of the displacement field in mining and post-mining areas and parameterization of geomechanical models.
MSc. Dawid Mrocheń is the author or co-author of 20 scientific publications, over 20 studies and scientific and technical expertise in the field of mining geodesy and protection of mining areas, and he also appeared at 7 national conferences presenting the results of his work.
