Stanisław Lem
European Research Prize

Prof. Maciej Lewenstein conducts research in the field of quantum optics, physics of ultracold gases and quantum computing, which has a great impact in the scientific community. In his research work, he also deals with topics related to statistical physics and neural networks.

He lectured, among others at Harvard University, at the Saclay Center for Nuclear Research, as well as at the University of Hannover. He is currently working at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona.

Prof. Lewenstein is a member of Academia Europaea and a fellow of the American Physical Society. His scientific publications have been cited over 40 000 times (Hirsch index 100). He has twice won the ERC Advanced Grant and has also been awarded many prestigious awards for scientific activity, including award of the Foundation for Polish Science. He is included in the elite Clarivate list of world’s most Highly Cited Researchers.

Tanja Brühl is president of Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. Before joining TU Darmstadt, Tanja Brühl was professor of political science with a focus on international institutions and peace processes at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Tanja Brühl is active as a science manager: She served as vice president responsible for academic affairs at Goethe University Frankfurt. She was president of the University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering (Unite!) from 2019 to 2025 – a European University of nine partners from across Europe. Since 2022, Tanja Brühl is president of the Alliance of Leading Technical Universities in Germany (TU9), together with Professor Dr. Angela Ittel, President of TU Braunschweig. Since 2023, Tanja Brühl acts as co-chair of the Advisory Board on the German Federal Government’s Future Research and Innovation Strategy.

Gérard Albert Mourou is a French scientist and pioneer in the field of electrical engineering and lasers. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, along with Donna Strickland, for the invention of chirped pulse amplification, a technique later used to create ultrashort-pulse, very high-intensity (petawatt) laser pulses.

In 1994, Mourou and his team at the University of Michigan discovered that the balance between the self-focusing refraction (see Kerr effect) and self-attenuating diffraction by ionization and rarefaction of a laser beam of terawatt intensities in the atmosphere creates „filaments” which act as waveguides for the beam, thus preventing divergence.

Mourou has been director of the Laboratoire d’optique appliquée at the ENSTA from 2005 to 2009. He is a professor and member of Haut Collège at the École polytechnique and A. D. Moore Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan where he has taught for over 16 years. He was the founding director of the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michigan in 1990. He had previously led a research group on ultrafast sciences at Laboratoire d’optique appliquée of ENSTA and École polytechnique, after obtaining a PhD degree from Pierre and Marie Curie University in 1973. He then went to the United States and became a professor at the University of Rochester in 1977, where he and his then student Donna Strickland produced their Nobel prize-winning work in the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the university. The pair co-invented chirped pulse amplification, a „method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses”. Strickland’s doctoral thesis was on „development of an ultra-bright laser and an application to multi-photon ionization”.

Michel Virlogeux is born on July 7,1946 at Vichy, France. He has been educated at the Prytanée National Militaire at La Flèche. He was graduated in1967 at the Ecole Polytechnique, in 1970 at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées ; in 1973 he became Docteur-Ingénieur of the Paris University. Civil servant in the French Administration, he started his professional career during three years in Tunisia. When back to France he worked more than 20 years at the Setra, the technical service of the Ministry of Transport, where he designed many bridges, including the Normandie Bridge. In 1995 he settled as independent consultant, working as expert and designer. Among many other bridges, he designed the Millau Viaduct, and the Third Bosphorus Bridge with Jean François Klein. He received many awards, and in 2021 he became Doctor Honoris Causa of the Wroclaw University of Sciences and Technology.

Robert-Jan Smits is the President of the Eindhoven University of Technology. Prior to this, he worked at the European Commission in the positions of Open Access Envoy (2018-2019) and Director-General of DG Research and Innovation (RTD) (2010-2018) where he was responsible for defining and implementing the EU policy and programmes in the field of research and innovation: Horizon 2020 (annual budget: 8 billion euro). Drs. Smits is also one of the architects of the successor programme Horizon Europe (annual budget: 10 billion euro).

Drs. Smits has received several recognitions and awards for his contribution to European science and innovation. He is an honorary member of Academia Europaea and of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen. He has degrees from Utrecht University in The Netherlands, Institut Universitaire d’Hautes Etudes Internationales in Switzerland and Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy in the United States of America.

Krzysztof Matyjaszewski is a Polish-American chemist. He is the J. C. Warner Professor of the Natural Sciences at the Carnegie Mellon University. Prof. Matyjaszewski is best known for the discovery of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a novel method of polymer synthesis that has revolutionized the way macromolecules are made.

Prof. Matyjaszewski was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 for expanding the capabilities of controlled/living polymerizations and developing ATRP, a robust catalytic process for the radical polymerization of monomers. He is also a member of the European Academy of Sciences. His scientific publications have been cited over 100 000 times (Hirsch index 162). He is included in the elite Clarivate list of world’s most Highly Cited Researchers.

In 2011 he was a co-winner of the prestigious Wolf Prize in Chemistry.

Physicist and professor at the University of Warsaw. Her research interests include information optics, holography, optical and hybrid information processing.

Prof. Katarzyna Chałasińska-Macukow was rector for two terms (from 2005 to 2012) and the first woman to hold this position in the history of the UW. In 2008-2012 she also headed the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland.

In 1970, she began working at the Institute of Physics of the Warsaw University of Technology, and from 1974 at the Institute of Experimental Physics. She received her PhD in 1979 and her postdoctoral degree in physics in 1988. She became an associate professor in 1992 and a full professor in 1997.

In 2009, she received an honorary doctorate from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), with which she has collaborated for twenty years. In 2013, she was also honoured with this title by the University of Transcarpathia in Ivano-Frankivsk. Madam Professor is a member of numerous scientific societies, including the Warsaw Scientific Society and the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE, USA). During the 2014-2017 term, she was president of the Polish Physical Society.

Prof. Éva Kondorosi is a Hungarian French molecular biologist. Her primary research field is Rhizobium-legume symbiosis and biological nitrogen fixation with a recent focus on plant-controlled differentiation of bacteria. Her work includes chemical ecology (molecular communication between the plants and bacteria), plant organ development, cell differentiation and fighting antimicrobial resistance.

She has received several prestigious scientific awards including the Balzan Prize and she is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the Academia Europaea, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the French Academy of Agriculture, the European Academy of Microbiology and the European Molecular Biology Organization. Eva Kondorosi is the current chair of Class C (Life Sciences) and Vice President of the Academia Europaea. She was also one of the seven members of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors of the European Commission.

Presently, she works at the HUN-REN Biology Research Center in Szeged.

Website: kondorosi-symbiosis.eu

Professor Halina Kwaśnicka is a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence at the Department of Artificial Intelligence of the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. She led research projects on applying artificial intelligence methods in medicine, image analysis and natural language processing. She participated in EU projects and managed a Polish-Singapore research project. She is a member of the Program Council of the AI Tech project (invited by the Minister of Digital Affairs) which aims to conduct high-level graduate studies on Artificial Intelligence. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the National Center for Research and Development – INFOSTRATEG Strategic Program.
Professor Kwaśnicka was invited by the Editorial Board of the London Journal of Research in Science: Natural and Formal (LJRS) as an honorary Rosalind Member of London Journals Press. She also worked as an expert of the European Commission on the review of the project „TRUST-AI,” a Transparent, Reliable and Unbiased Smart Tool for AI.

Professor Grażyna Gryglewicz is a head of the Department of Process Engineering and Technology of Polymer and Carbon Materials in the Faculty of Chemistry at the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. She obtained a PhD in chemical technology in 1983 and her postdoctoral degree in 1998. She was promoted to a full professor in 2008. Her research interests are related to the synthesis of carbon/graphene materials and their application in water treatment, energy storage and environmental monitoring. She was in charge of numerous research projects, including three EU projects as a Polish leader. In 2021-2024 she was a chairman of the discipline of chemical engineering in the Faculty of Chemistry. The discipline was awarded the highest category of A+ in recent national evaluation. Since 2013 she has been a member of the Polish Carbon Society Board. She is included in the Ranking World’s TOP 2% Scientists.

Krzysztof M. Abramski (Electronics, Photonics and Microsystems Faculty) received PhD (1978) in electronics from Wrocław University of Science and Technology. At that time he worked at frequency stabilization of gas lasers and many aspects of spectral properties of laser radiation. In 1983-84 he worked (Research Fellow) at Twente University of Technology, the Netherlands (CO₂, CO lasers, excimer lasers). In 1987 he worked half a year in Faculty of Applied Physics, Hull University, England. After that he worked as a visiting scientist for five years, till 1992 in Optoelectrionics and Lasers Engineering Group, Heriott-Watt University, Edinburgh, on different aspects of radio frequency excited CO₂ lasers (wavegudes, slab-waveguides, waveguide arrays, phase locking structures). He returned to Wrocław (1993), where he started creating the Laser and Fiber Electronics Research Group. His scientific interests: optical fiber lasers (cw tunable, pulsed femtosecond, optical combs), microchip solid state diode pumped lasers, optical fiber sensors, free-space and optical fiber communications, laser spectroscopy. His motto is “teaching by research”, he has promoted 21 PhDs”. From 2007 he is the honorary professor of Heriot-Watt University. He initiated the popular English teaching programs “Electronic and Computer Engineering” and  “Advanced Applied Electronics” (MSc). He is on the list of Ranking World’s TOP 2% Scientists.

Dr Andrzej Pawlak is an Assistant Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. He is a member of Academia Iuvenum at Wrocław University of Science and Technology and contributes to the development of interdisciplinary research and cooperation between science and industry. He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering, with his research focusing on metal additive manufacturing, particularly the development and optimisation of laser powder bed fusion processes for advanced engineering materials. His scientific interests include process–structure–property relationships, data-driven process optimisation, machine learning, and the application of additive manufacturing to lightweight structures, heat exchangers, and components operating under demanding conditions. He has participated in numerous national and international research projects, including Horizon Europe, M-ERA.NET, and projects funded by the Polish National Science Centre, collaborating with academic and industrial partners across Europe and the United States.  His current work combines experimental manufacturing research with advanced optimisation methods to develop more efficient, reliable, and sustainable additive manufacturing technologies.

Dr. Eng. Agnieszka Mirkowska holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and works as an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Wrocław University of Science and Technology, in the Department of Electrical Engineering Fundamentals and Electrotechnology.

Her research focuses on advanced piezoelectric and electret materials, energy harvesting technologies, and additive manufacturing of ferroelectret structures. Dr. Mirkowska is a co-inventor of patents related to composite materials and piezoelectric transducers, and the author of numerous publications in renowned international journals.

She is also actively involved in organizational activities and science communication. She is a member of Academia Iuvenum at WUST and she supervises the STRIMER Student Research Group, which carries out projects related to high-voltage engineering as well as energy storage and harvesting.

Dr. Mirkowska is also an active science communicator, participating in nationwide initiatives such as “Girls into Science”, “Science Has a Voice”, “School Journeys Through the World of Science” in Wrocław, and other outreach events organized by WUST.

Dr Kinga Żołnacz holds a PhD in physical sciences, specializing in optics and photonics. She is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Optics and Photonics, Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology, Wrocław University of Science and Technology. She represents Academia Iuvenum, a community of outstanding young scientists at WUST. 

Her research includes structured optical fibers, nonlinear processes, and quantum photonic technologies. She has participated in many scientific projects including three large international consortia. She has received numerous awards, including the Prime Minister Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation and Emerging Innovation Award sponsored by Hamamatsu. 

She is the originator of the method for direct coupling of a semiconductor quantum dot to an optical fiber and is currently working on enhancing the efficiency of fiber components for development of fiber-coupled single-photon sources for quantum communication. Her most recent work focuses on advanced optical fiber systems for biomedical imaging and minimally invasive endoscopy for endodontics and real-time brain cancer diagnostics.

Tomasz Lem, the son of Stanisław Lem, is a Polish translator of English-language literature. He graduated from the American International School in Vienna, then studied physics and mathematics at the University of Vienna, and graduated from Princeton University.

Ms. Katarzyna Kozłowska completed her master and doctoral degree in automation, electronics and electrical engineering at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology.

Since 2020, Dr Katarzyna Kozłowska has been the head of the Department of Science and Research, which is responsible for ensuring the proper course of scientific promotion procedures at the university and also supports academics in competitions for scientific awards and scholarships. Before, she was the head of the Center for Science and Economy Cooperation.