Jerzy Buzek others. From 1997 to 2001, Buzek was a coalition Prime Minister of Poland. In 1998 he became the first laureate of the Grzegorz Palka Award and was nominated "European of the Year" by the European Union Business Chambers Forum. In 1998 he was named 'Person of the Year' by the influential Polish political weekly "Wprost". He won the award for a second time in 2009. On receiving the award again, as President of the European Parliament, he stressed that he was the first winner to be honoured for his work beyond the borders of Poland. He was the first Prime
Jerzy Buzek which participated in Polish politics in the Second Polish Republic during the interbellum. The family was part of the Polish community in Zaolzie. Buzek's father was an engineer. After the Second World War, his family moved to Chorzów. He is a Lutheran. In 1963 Jerzy Buzek graduated from the Mechanics-and-Energy Division of the Silesian University of Technology, specialising in chemical engineering. He became a scientist in the Chemical Engineering Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 1997 he has been a professor of technical science. He is also an honorary doctor of the universities in Seoul and Dortmund among