Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek awarded another round of scholarships to outstanding young scientists. The awards have been conferred to young scientists who conduct high-quality innovative research and who have an impressive record of prestigious scientific achievements on an international scale.
Among the awardees were Olga Urbanek-Świderska PhD from the Laboratory of Polymers and Biomaterials IPPT PAN and Jarosław Walczak PhD from the Department of Biosystems and Soft Matter IPPT PAN.
This year’s edition brought 1828 wniosków scholarships applications. The minister has given the total amount of 230 scholarships for the outstanding scientists, including 37 for doctoral students, shortlisted in the competition supervised by an expert advisory board.
The best young researchers from IPPT PAN:
Olga Urbanek-Świderska PhD is a graduate of the Medical University of Warsaw and the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology. In addition, she completed postgraduate studies in the field of Organization and Management of Clinical Trials (Lazarski University). In 2013 she completed a scientific internship at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Japan. She pursued her doctorate at IPPT PAN in 2014-2019. She is the author of 19 scientific publications published in journals indexed on the list of journals of the Ministry of National Education and Science and the author of 29 conference presentations, 1 invention covered by patent protection and 2 patent applications. According to the Scopus database, her Hirsch index is 12 and the number of citations is 552. Research conducted by Olga Urbanek-Świderska PhD is interdisciplinary and focuses on the use of biomaterials in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and includes both, basic and applied research. Olga Urbanek-Świderska PhD received funding for two research projects, PRELUDIUM (NCN) conducted in 2015-2018 and SONATA (NCN), which she has been leading as the main researcher and project manager at IPPT PAN since June 2023. In addition, she is a laureate of the Kościuszko Foundation award, which enabled her to complete an internship at Drexel University (Philadelphia, USA). Moreover, she actively participated in such projects as LIDER (NCBR), STRATEGMED (NCBR) or TEAMTECH (FnP). Additionally, Olga Urbanek-Świderska PhD actively participates in events popularizing science, such as the Science Festival or Materials Engineering Days. Currently, she is an assistant supervisor of two doctoral theses conducted at IPPT PAN by PhD students of prof. Paweł Sajkiewicz..
Jarosław Walczak PhD is a graduate of the Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. In 2016, he defended his doctoral thesis in biological sciences at the M. Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. During his doctoral studies, he conducted scientific internships at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg. He has been involved in numerous research projects and R&D activities in collaboration with companies in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological industries. Since 2018, Dr. Jarosław Walczak has been a participant in the FIRST TEAM project of the Foundation for Polish Science, led by Prof. Michał Komorowski. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Laboratory of Modeling in Biology and Medicine at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In this position, he carries out research tasks as the head of the SONATA project, funded by the National Science Center. His specialization lies in high-throughput, multiparametric analysis of single cells. Within the framework of the ongoing project, he investigates how non-genetic sources of intercellular heterogeneity may contribute to the development of drug-resistant cell phenotypes and whether they could be targeted by new combinatory therapies to enhance the effectiveness of killing cells that have developed resistance to drugs. The research results he has been involved in have been published in prestigious journals such as Nature Communications, Science Signaling, Scientific Reports, and Methods.
Congratulation to our young and talented researches!
