Five Gdańsk Tech Scholars Awarded Ministerial Scholarships

Two laureates are from the Faculty of Chemistry, with one person each from the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Ship Technology, and the Faculty of Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics.

Dr Eng. Michał Bartmański, materials engineering

He is an assistant professor and head of the Department of Biomaterials Technology at the Institute of Machine and Materials Technology at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Ship Technology. He conducts scientific research in the field of surface engineering of biomaterials, focusing on the design and manufacturing of advanced surface modifications of metallic implants intended for applications in orthopedics and dentistry. His interests mainly include functionalization of β-type titanium alloys using micro-arc oxidation (MAO), electrophoretic deposition (EPD), and chitosan-based polymeric materials. The developed solutions aim to simultaneously increase the bioactivity of implants, improve osseointegration, and impart antibacterial properties through controlled release of active substances and intelligent response to changing peri-implant environmental conditions.

He leads the SONATA NCN project entitled "Functionalization of the surface of β-type titanium alloy through the production of a hybrid, intelligent coating for biomedical applications." He has also been the principal investigator of the MINIATURA NCN project and several projects conducted under the IDUB PG program. In his scientific activity, he develops interdisciplinary research combining materials engineering, nanotechnology, and cell biology, encompassing both the design of new biomaterials and comprehensive evaluation of their physicochemical, mechanical, biological, and antibacterial properties.

He is the author of numerous scientific publications in JCR-listed journals and the creator of patent-protected solutions related to bioactive implant coatings and composites intended for implant fixation in bone tissue. He has completed scientific internships in Finland, Germany, and Spain, collaborating with leading European centers specializing in biomaterials and regenerative medicine. The results of his research contribute to the development of a new generation of intelligent implantable biomaterials that address current challenges in regenerative medicine and implantology.

Dr Eng. Karol Biernacki, pharmaceutical sciences

He conducts interdisciplinary scientific research in medicinal chemistry, focusing on the rational design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of new small-molecule compounds with therapeutic potential. His work includes searching for innovative targeted therapies in oncology (with particular emphasis on breast cancer) and neurodegenerative diseases. In his research activities, he develops modern synthetic organic methods, including dual enzymatic inhibitors, and in the coming years, he will focus on designing a new generation of compounds to combat multiple sclerosis.

He gained scientific experience, among others, during foreign internships at the University of Florence. His achievements include 20 JCR-listed articles, 5 patents, and leadership of the NCN PRELUDIUM project. He is a laureate of the award from the Gdańsk Branch of the Polish Chemical Society (PTChem) for the best doctoral dissertation and is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Drug Design published by Scilight.

Dr Eng. Katarzyna Drozdowska-Czubek, automation, electronics, electrical engineering and space technologies

In 2025, she defended her doctoral thesis with distinction (supervisor: Prof. Janusz Smulko). Since then, she has been working as an assistant professor at the Department of Metrology and Electronic Systems at the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics.

Her research focuses on the use of low-dimensional structures and materials in sensors, including gas phase compound detection. They mainly center on optimizing the operating conditions of such sensors (polarizing voltage, illumination, temperature) and applying measurement methodologies based on stochastic phenomena responsible for particle detection. An important element of her research is low-frequency noise measurements – the noise of the electronic element (e.g., the sensor under study) becomes, in this case, a source of additional information about the material and the changes occurring during gas detection, rather than just a device flaw.

She has collaborated with Polish and foreign research centers, including the Institute of High Pressure PAS in Warsaw, Uppsala University (Sweden), and the University of California Riverside (USA). From 2024 to 2025, she led the national PRELUDIUM NCN research project, and from 2020 to 2024, she worked as a grantee in the OPUS NCN project.

She is co-author of more than 20 publications and conference papers, as well as national and European patents. In 2023, she received the START scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science for outstanding young scientists. In 2026, she was a finalist in the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) competition for the best research paper published in the field of technical sciences, as well as a finalist in the national TRUMPF Huettinger competition for the best doctoral thesis in Automation, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, and Space Technologies.

Dr Eng. Damian Głowienka, physical sciences

He heads the Hybrid Photoactive Materials Laboratory (HPM Lab) at the Faculty of Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics. He completed his PhD at Gdańsk Tech, dedicating it to the study of physical phenomena in organic and perovskite solar cells. He gained international experience during postdoctoral internships at Solliance in the Netherlands and at National Taiwan University in Taipei.

His scientific activity focuses on the research and optimization of perovskite solar cells, as well as the analysis of their stability. He combines experimental research with modeling, which allows for a better understanding of the mechanisms affecting the efficiency and durability of photovoltaic devices and the development of solutions useful for next-generation solar cell technologies. His achievements include 25 scientific publications in JCR-listed journals. His most important works have been published in Advanced Materials (IF 26.8), Nano Energy (IF 17.1), and ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (IF 8.2). Four of his articles were featured on the covers of scientific journals.

He has led and currently leads projects funded by NCN, NCBR, and IDUB PG programs. He is the principal investigator of the SONATA NCN project on three-terminal tandem perovskite solar cells and the PG team leader in the Polish-Taiwanese project on the stability of the SnO₂ interface in perovskite photovoltaic devices. Previously, he also led the PRELUDIUM NCN project and the PG team in the international M-ERA.NET Greenhouse-PV project.

Dr Eng. Miłosz Wieczór, biological sciences

His scientific interests involve simulations of biomolecular systems, especially those involving nucleic acids - RNA and DNA. He uses methods of statistical mechanics and machine learning both for applied research, often conducted in cooperation with experimentalists, and for developing models describing the behavior of biologically relevant molecules. After a postdoctoral internship at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute, in 2026 he returned to Gdańsk Tech to start realizing the OPUS NCN project "Machine learning of next-generation force fields for atomistic RNA simulations," and recently, a newly discovered family of RNA-guided endonucleases with high biotechnological potential became a new object of his scientific interest.

Simultaneously, he develops software for visualization of molecular simulations and advanced editing of simulation systems, and in his free time, he hosts the industry podcast Phase Space Invaders, where he conducts interviews with professors from around the world, introducing young scientists to the history and new directions in the field of computational biophysics.

He is the author or co-author of several dozen publications in prestigious scientific journals, including Science, Nature Communications, PNAS, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, and Nucleic Acids Research.

About the scholarship program

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) scholarship program aims to recognize and financially support the most promising young scientists at an early stage of their careers. Scholarship laureates will receive support of PLN 5390 monthly for a period of 3 years. More