Professor Piela received his bachelor degree in 1960 from the histroric Konarski College in his home town of Rzeszow, Poland. In 1965, he graduated with a Masters of Science from the University of Warsaw and, after obtaining his Ph.D. from the same university 5 years later, went on to became a professor in 1976. In addition to his work in Warsaw, he has carried out research in the Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire (France), Facultés Universitaires de Namur (Belgium) and Cornell University (USA). In addition to being the author of about hundred papers published in international journals, Professor Piela is an elected member of the Academie Royale des Sciences, Lettres et Beaux-Arts de Belgique, and a member of the European Academy of Sciences.