After 9 years of intensive study, a cardiologist and researcher from Jagiellonian University, Mateusz Hołda obtained the title of Professor before turning 30 years old. On July 4, he has achieved the title in Medical College Faculty of Medicine at Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Previously, the title of the youngest person has been accomplished by Prof. Krzysztof Sośnica from the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences at the age of 35.
Professor Mateusz Hołda has written and published almost 100 papers that appeared in leading scientific journals, such as Annals of Anatomy, International Journal of Cardiology, Europace, Journal of Anatomy, JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, Stroke, and JASE.
Moreover, in 2019, Prof. Mateusz Hołda was also put on Forbes’s magazine 30 under 30 list. And in the same year, the British think tank Emerging Europe titled him the most influential European of the young generation.
“9 years of intensive research and work resulted in the title of Professor of Medicine. And so, at the age of 29, I have become the youngest professor in the history of Poland. There were more failures than victories on the way to this success – it was tough (sometimes very hard), but it was definitely worth it. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this success – there are many of you! I think that this is not the end of my scientific path, but only the beginning…”, Professor Mateusz Hołda shared on Facebook.
Despite his young age, the Faculty of Medicine researcher already has staggeringly impressive accomplishments under his belt. In 2017, he received his PhD while still being a fourth year student of medicine – also a first in the history of Poland. Additionally, he became the youngest ever researcher to qualify for the procedure of habilitation: the JU Medical Sciences Research Discipline Council awarded him for his overall scientific achievements as well as a series of articles entitled Atrial septal pouch – occurrence, imaging methods and clinical significance of the newly described anatomical structure. (en.uj.edu.pl)
The researcher has been supported not only by UJ but also other institutions. He has received funding from numerous organisations, for example, the Foundation for Polish Science, the National Science Centre and the Ministry of Education and Science. Furthermore, he received a plethora of grants and awards, and is a member of the Polish Cardiac Society, European Society of Cardiology, American Association of Anatomists and American Association of Clinical Anatomists.