It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Professor Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch, who passed away on 7th July 2020 after a severe illness.

Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch was born in 1952 in Częstochowa. She studied Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University, where she received her M.A. in 1976. In 1985 she earned her PhD degree from the Institute of the Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences, for the thesis on place names of the Land of Chełm and Bełz, prepared under the supervision of Professor Kazimierz Rymut. In 1995 she received habilitation for the monograph on adaptations of German place names in the Polish language and in 2008 was awarded the Full Professor title by the President of the Republic of Poland.

Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch served as a professor at the Institute of the Polish Language, PAS, where she was the head of the Department of Onomastics and the editor-in-chief of the journal “Onomastica”. For many years she was the chair of the Polish Commission on Names of Localities and Physiographic Objects.

Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch was a member of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences since 1996, a member of the ICOS Board of Directors in the years 2008–2012, the Chair of the Scientific Council of the Polish Onomastic Society since 2018, and the main coordinator of the 27^th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences to be held in Kraków, Poland.

She will remain in our memories as a distinguished and dedicated scholar, demanding but gentle academic leader, and a kind person.