Professor Stanislaw Tolpa was a great scientist and inventor. He devoted all his life to peat research. His work resulted in obtaining a bioactive fraction of peat with immunotropic and proregenerative properties.

Stanislaw Tolpa was born on 3 November 1901 in Ruda Lancucka in Rzeszow region. After passing his matriculation examination in 1920 in Real Gymnasium in Lezajsk, he started studying at the Faculty of Theology at Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov. In 1923 he moved to the Faculty of Mathematical and Natural Sciences to begin a botanical specialization which he completed in 1928; two years later he defended his doctoral dissertation "Research on mountain peat bogs of Czarnohora". Tolpa was not only an outstanding researcher - he was also a great educator. He gave lessons to his friends while still in the gymnasium. He began teaching biology in the State Gymnasium and Lyceum in Kalisz in 1932. Tolpa wrote textbooks for primary and secondary schools, constantly seeking the most effective and attractive forms of teaching. His greatest passion however, was peat bogs and he remained faithful to them for his entire lifetime. Tolpa arrived in Wroclaw after the Second World War in May 1945. There he met his former supervisor from the beginning of his work on peat - Prof. Stanislaw Kulczynski; together they took part in organizing Wroclaw University and Technical University. In 1946 he submitted a postdoctoral dissertation and took charge of the Department of Botany. He gave lectures and lessons on botany for students of Agricultural and Medical Faculties. He did it so perfectly, that the lecture hall was always completely full.

In 1948 Stanislaw Tolpa obtained an associate professor degree. At the same time he was appointed to the position of the dean of the Agricultural Faculty and then he was nominated as an organizer of the Higher School of Agriculture in Wroclaw. He was the rector of the Higher School of Agriculture in Wroclaw in the years 1952-1954. In 1958 he became a full professor. He was extremely diligent. He was known as an outstanding scientist in the fields of botany and peat-bog science.

Tolpa published a lot of works and presented numerous papers at symposiums and scientific congresses in Poland as well as abroad. His works on peat biological activity were received with great interest. Professor Tolpa was a recipient of many awards and honours for his teaching and organisational activities. Professor Tolpa died on 11 October 1996 in Wroclaw.