Organiser or education. 100th anniversary of Vice-Rector Romanas Chomskis
Long-time Vice-Rector for Research Affairs of Kaunas Polytechnical Institute doc. Romanas Marijonas Chomskis would have turned 100 on 29 July. He graduated from Kaunas Higher Technical School in 1941 and Kaunas National Vytautas Magnus University in 1948 (reorganised into Kaunas Polytechnical Institute (KPI), Electrotechnical Faculty in 1951). During his studies, he started working as a laboratory assistant at the Department of General Electrotechnics and became the assistant of this department after graduation. In 1954, R. Chomskis defended the dissertation of the doctoral candidate in physics-mathematics “Research of Dielectric Loss Angle Using a Phase-Sensitive Electronic Current Indicator”. In 1957–1958, he was the deputy director of the Institute of Energy and Electrotechnics at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and in 1950–1960 – the director of Kaunas Research Institute of Radio Measurement Technology Science and simultaneously taught at the Department of General Electrotechnics of KPI. In 1960, R. Chomskis became the head of the Department of Automation and Calculation Devices of KPI. In 1961, the departmental Laboratory of Electronic Computing Machinery was established under this department and R. Chomskis was the head of it until 1975. In 1966, the Department of Computing Machinery was established at KPI and R. Chomskis was the head of this department for the first 3 years. In 1962, he was awarded the academic title of associate professor and in 1965 – the honorary title of emeritus engineer of the Lithuanian SSR. For 23 years, from 1961 until his retirement in 1984, R. Chomskis was the Vice-Rector for Research of KPI. Simultaneously, he was teaching students and preparing scientists – the specialists of computational machinery, was the patron of KPI student scientific society. 29 of his students became doctoral candidates, 7 – habilitated doctors of science. R. Chomskis was one of the pioneers of computational machinery in Lithuania and was involved in the development of computational machinery. After retirement, another talent was revealed – he began painting the portraits of famous people. Moreover, the former Vice-Rector was actively involved in the activities of the Samogitian Cultural Society in the restoration of the cultural foundation of Rietavas, donated quite a few exhibits to Laurynas Inžvinskis Secondary School and the collection of his works to Rietavas; currently, it is stored at the Oginski Cultural History Museum of Rietavas. A part of his paintings is stored at KTU Museum. R. Chomskis died on 11 July 1991 in Jurbarkas. He is buried in Panemunė Cemetery in Kaunas.
On the occasion of the anniversary, KTU Museum presented the exhibition of the portraits painted by the former Vice-Rector on the 3rd floor of KTU Administration Building and the virtual exhibition presenting the photographs and documents from KTU Museum, archive and the Chomskis family archive.
