2011 marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Czeslaw Milosz.

Poland's Literary Institute has opened a website with updated information on all events and initiatives connected with the Year of Milosz.

http://www.milosz365.eu/

In addition to Poland, the Year of Milosz will also be marked in Lithuania, where he was born, in the United States, where he lived for many years as well as in such countries as France, Israel and Russia.

The programme for the Year of Milosz is made up of new book publications, conferences, discussions, and exhibitions devoted to the poet, organized both in Poland and abroad, from Krasnoyarsk to Vilnius, from Krasnogruda, Krakow and Paris to New York and San Francisco. Its culminating event was the 2nd Milosz Festival, which took place in Krakow between 9th May and 15th May 2011.

Czeslaw Milosz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. He died in 2004 at the age of 93. Between 1951 and 1989 he lived in exile as a political émigré, first in France and then in the United States.

This is not only an important year in the field of literature but also in the field of science. There are two further patrons that should be remembered this year, namely Maria Curie-Sklodowska and Jan Hevelius.

Jan Hevelius was a famous astronomer known as the founder of lunar topography and discovered ten new constellations, seven of which are still recognized today by astronomers.

Maria Sklodowska-Curie was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and the first person honoured with two Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry. She also had the distinction of being the first female professor at the University of Paris.