January 20, 2017, died at age 75 years prof. Richard Krystek - a prominent specialist in the field of Road Safety, university lecturer, Under Secretary of State for Transport Policy in the Ministry of Infrastructure, the founder and president of the Foundation for the Development of Civil Engineering and Deputy Director for Science in 2011-2016 in Motor Transport Institute.

Professor Richard Krystek graduated in 1966 with honours from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Gdańsk, and then defended his doctoral dissertation on the theory of road traffic. In 1972 he received a scholarship from the French government at the INRETS - Institute of Transport Research. In 1980, following the presentation of the dissertation on the traffic control computer systems, he received an assistant professor degree. Then, for four years he taught traffic engineering at the Technical University of Oran. After returning home in 1985, he was appointed Director of the Institute of Transport Engineering at the Technical University of Gdansk. 

In 1986 he became head of the Department of Highway Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Technical University of Gdansk and began scientific work in the field of road safety. There, in 1988, he received the title of professor. In 1992-93 he headed the doctoral study at the Technical University of Oran.

In 1993 he received a grant of the Committee for Scientific Research to develop a program of road safety in Poland, commissioned by the Minister of Transport. He created a multidisciplinary team, part of which was the Motor Transport Institute and the Kraków University of Technology. The team prepared the "Integrated program to improve road traffic safety in Poland", known by its acronym as GAMBIT 96.

In the years 1995-98 he was a member of the Central Committee for the Academic Titles and Degrees of the Prime Minister. 

In 1999-2000, he led a team preparing, at the Minister's of Transport request, the "National Road Safety Program - GAMBIT 2000". In May 2001 the Council of Ministers adopted it as a program for Poland for the years 2001-2010. In 1999, after being elected the dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Gdańsk he created the Foundation for the Development of Civil Engineering and was the first president of its board of directors.

In 2004 he was appointed Undersecretary of State for the Transport Policy in the Ministry of Infrastructure. There he has created two important documents developed by multidisciplinary teams of experts:

"State Transport Policy for 2006-2025", adopted by the Council of Ministers in June 2005, . "National Road Safety Program - GAMBIT 2005", a program consistent with the III Road Safety European Union Program.

Having returned to the Gdańsk University of Technology and the position of full professor he was appointed president of the Foundation for the Development of Civil Engineering. In 2007, he co-founded Polish Association of Intelligent Transport Systems - ITS Polska, where he served as chairman of the Supervisory Board. Since 2007 has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Motor Transport Institute in Warsaw. In the years 2007 -

2010 he led the scientific consortium of the Gdańsk University of Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Air Force Institute of Technology in Warsaw and the Maritime University of Szczecin, implementing a ZEUS project entitled: "Integrated transport safety system". In September

2011 he ended 51 years of cooperation with the Technical University of Gdańsk accepting the job at Transport Institute, where he had been employed since 2007. In 2011 he was appointed Deputy Director for Research at ITS.

He was the author of over 170 publications, promoter of 11 doctors and more than 200 engineers, as well as the reviewer of many scientific dissertations. The most important monograph published edited by the author

are: "road and motorway nodes" (WKiŁ, 1992, 1998 and 2001) and "Integrated transport safety system -ZEUS" (WKiŁ 2010-2012).

Our deepest condolences and sympathy go to the Family and the Relatives of the deceased.