Przytycki then returned to Poland, where he became an assistant professor at the University of Warsaw.

[3] In 1987, Przytycki and Pawel Traczyk published a paper[4] that included a description of what is now called the HOMFLY(PT) polynomial.

Postal delays prevented Przytycki and Traczyk from receiving full recognition alongside the other six discoverers.

Przytycki also introduced skein modules in a paper published in 1991;[5] see also his entry in the online Encyclopedia of Mathematics.

Józef Przytycki is married to computational biologist and mathematician Teresa Przytycka (born 1958).