Stanisław Lem
European Research Prize

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. Since 2019, she is president of the University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering (Unite!) – an 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.

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.

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.

Konrad Gruber is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on developing additive manufacturing (AM, also known as 3D printing) processes and materials that enable printed parts to withstand harsh environmental conditions and unlock true design freedom.

In 2021, he received the Prime Minister of Poland Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation, in which he proposed a 3D printing method to produce thin-wall aircraft engine parts. After earning his doctorate, Konrad gained postdoctoral experience through funded internships in Switzerland, Germany, and the United States.

Konrad’s recent scientific interests include in situ methods to influence crystallization in powder bed fusion metal 3D printing for enhanced structure and properties, and the use of machine learning methods to optimize AM processes and materials.

Alina Szukalska is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Chemistry at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. Her research interests focus on the phenomenon of multicolor, white lasing, and white emission in organic systems. During her doctoral studies, she spent two years at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, where she developed a fully organic, current-tunable white laser using liquid crystals. After defending her PhD, she undertook numerous research fellowships in France and Italy. Currently, she leads the MINIATURA internship project, which enabled her to conduct nonlinear optical research in France on novel perylenediimide polymers. Her second scientific project, SONATA, aims to simplify the process of white lasing using a single dye. Currently, she is focused on the development of a white laser in nanoscale.

Pawel Widomski is an assistant professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. His research interests focus on advanced metal 3D printing methods, surface engineering of superhard layers and coatings, and advanced metal forming and welding processes. In this field, he actively cooperates with scientists and companies from most European Union countries in research and development projects. He is the author of several patents, dozens of publications and many industrial applications He currently leads the LIDER project, in which he is developing new methods for 3D printing tools with conformal cooling channels. His research has resulted in the implementation of several advanced metal forming technologies, new coatings and layers to increase wear resistance, and the development of advanced devices for disinfection and temperature measurement in times of covid pandemic. In his current research, he is seeking alternative methods for 3D printing of metals useful for use on space stations in microgravity conditions.

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 Science Office, 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.