Six young physicists affiliated with Polish universities have been awarded scholarships by the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). Among 72 outstanding scientists from around the world, six Poles received this prestigious award. The SPIE scholarship is awarded to individuals who are engaged in research in optics, photonics, and related sciences.
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics. It brings engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals together to advance light-based science and technology. Over the past five years, it has contributed more than $22 million to the international optics community through our advocacy and support, including scholarships, educational resources, travel grants, endowed gifts, and public-policy development.
SPIE Awards Scholarships in Poland
Grzegorz Gomółka, who is pursuing his PhD at the Doctoral School of the Wrocław University of Technology (PWr), focuses on research related to laser gas detection and hollow-core special fibres. His work has the potential to bring significant benefits to the field of gas detection and analysis.
Marcin Jastrzębski and Stanislaw Kurzyna, first-year sophomore students at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw (UW), have been recognised for their achievements as fellows of the Laboratory of Quantum Optical Devices, which is part of the Centre for Quantum Optical Technologies (the laboratory is headed by Dr Michał Parniak). Already during their undergraduate studies, they published an article in the renowned journal Optics Express on a new method for characterising short pulses of light at the single photon level.
Karol Lukanowski is pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Warsaw and also received an SPIE scholarship. Previously, he was honoured with an award for the best bachelor’s and master’s thesis on topics related to quantum communication and quantum cryptography.
Michal Lipka is a two-time SPIE Fellow. He first received this award in 2019. In 2021, he was awarded the Arkadiusz Piekara Prize by the Polish Physical Society for his master’s thesis, which dealt with the generation of polarisation entanglement in a quantum hopper using wave vector coding. This thesis was prepared under the supervision of Dr Wojciech Wasilewski, Prof. UW.
Piotr Węgrzyn, who is pursuing his PhD at the International Centre for Eye Research (ICTER) and the University of Warsaw, was awarded an SPIE fellowship. He is also a co-founder and president of the Candela Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting the development of optics and photonics in Poland.
The scholarships awarded to six young physicists affiliated with Polish universities recognise their outstanding achievements in the fields of optics and photonics, as well as demonstrate the development of these scientific fields in Poland.