He was a professor (from 1923) and rector (1936–1939) of Warsaw University of Technology, and a member of the Polish Academy of Learning (since 1947).
The oldest and largest traditional lecture hall at the Warsaw University of Technology is named Prof. Józef Zawadzki Auditorium.
Under the German occupation of Poland during World War II, he was involved in the clandestine operation of the Warsaw University of Technology.
[2] The mechanism of ammonia oxidation on platinum at low temperature was postulated by F. Rachsig (1927) and later adapted by Zawadzki (1948, 1950) to proceed via formation on imide (NH).
In this proposal formation of nitroxyl and hydrazine (N2H4) is involved:[3] Later, Y. M. Fogel (1964) disproved the Zawadzki theory that NH is formed via the oxidation of ammonia.