Awarded: 2020
Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw (1968). His student interests in surgery (in the Surgical Club at Prof. Jan Nielubowicz’s clinic and as a volunteer at the Department of Experimental Surgery of the Polish Academy of Sciences) led him to otolaryngology, which he owed to his student assistant and later surgical first steps instructor, the late Dr. Tadeusz Jegliński.
Since 1970, he has been employed at the Otolaryngology Clinic. He was a member of the team organized by Prof. Zbigniew Bochenek, who was then creating the first Clinical Laboratory of Balance System Research in Poland. The knowledge and experience he gained in otoneurology resulted in numerous scientific papers, a doctorate (1974), and then a habilitation (1986). He was the Head of the Balance System Research Laboratory for many years and an undisputed authority in the field of diagnosis and treatment of hearing and balance disorders.
He also developed an interest in head and neck surgery, particularly oncological and reconstructive surgery, while on a fellowship with Professor D.F.N. Harrisson in London. In 1978, he left for a two-year contract to work at Garyounis University in Benghazi, Libya. In 1988, he spent three weeks as a Visiting Professor in Berlin at the Otolaryngology Clinic of Humboldt University (Charité Hospital), where he gained experience in head and neck cancer surgery. In 1989, he became head of the Otolaryngology Clinic at the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Kielce, Medical University of Krakow, which in 1990 lost its academic status and became the Department of Otolaryngology. From January 2001 until his retirement in 2010, he headed the Department of Head and Neck Cancer Surgery at the newly established Świętokrzyskie Oncology Center. In 2001, he was appointed professor at the Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce. Professor Stanisław Bień is a very active academic teacher and member of numerous scientific societies. He has supervised five doctoral dissertations and supervised the specializations in otorhinolaryngology for 24 physicians. He has been involved in developing specialization programs in Poland (since 2001) and in Europe since 2006, when he began collaborating with the Otolaryngology Section of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS ORL Section) and became a member of the European Board of Examination in ORL H&NS. He served on the Main Board of the Polish Society of Oncological Surgery (PTORL ChGiSz) for three terms (1996-2002), the Polish Society of Oncological Surgery, and the Robert Barany Society – Upsala, Sweden. He is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Polish Review of Otorhinolaryngology, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly “Studia Medyczne,” a member of the Editorial Committee of “Otorhinolaryngology – a clinical review” and the Editorial Committee of the quarterly “Magazyn Otorynolaryngologiczny.” In 1989, he was appointed Provincial Specialist for Otorhinolaryngology in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. He is actively involved in the work of the Supreme Medical Chamber and the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. He has been honored by the Rector of the Medical University of Warsaw with numerous scientific and teaching awards, including the Dr. Tytus Chałubiński Medal, the Gold Cross of Merit (2001) at the request of the Supreme Medical Chamber, the Medal of the 40th Anniversary of the Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce (2010), and many others.