Professor Jan Strelau joined SWPS University in 2001. He was the first Dean of the Faculty of Psychology. He also held the position of Vice-Rector for Research for ten years. He is a member of The Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea), a full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He was President of the European Association of Personality Psychology (1984-1988) and of the International Society of Psychology Of Individual Differences (1993-1995), Vice-President of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS, 1996-2000), and Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2002-2006).
Professor Strelau is an expert in psychology of individual differences and is best known for his Regulative Theory of Temperament. He also edited and co-authored, together with Professor Dariusz Doliński, a 3-tome handbook, Psychology (published by Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne in 2000), which received the Teofrast Award, in 2009.
Professor Strelau authored, co-authored and edited close to 300 scientific publications, including 44 books, such as Temperament, Activity, Personality (Academic Press, 1983), Temperament: A Psychological Perspective (Plenum Press, 1998), and Różnice indywidualne. Historia, determinanty, zastosowania [Individual Differences. History, Determinants, Applications] (Scholar, 2014).
His many awards and recognitions include: the Foundation for Polish Science Award (FNP Award), also known as Polish Nobel Prize, and New Europe Prize for Higher Education and Research, jointly administered by six Centers for Advanced Studies, including Stanford, Princeton, North Carolina, NIAS, Uppsala and Berlin. He was granted the title of doctor honoris causa by four universities, including SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities.