On 25^th September 2023 at the Staszic Palace, the Polish Academy of Sciences hosted a day-long networking event for the PASIFIC Programme researches and members of the Polish Young Academy (Akademia Młodych Uczonych, AMU).

The meeting was opened at the Hall of Mirrors by the PASIFIC Programme Coordinator, Professor Paweł Rowiński.

Science in a nutshell

Participants have been divided into corresponding thematic groups (Life Sciences, Social Sciences & Humanities and Physical Sciences & Engineering) and were given an opportunity to present their research and current results.Each overview was concluded with an Q&A session.

The Physical Sciences & Engineering gathered at the Stanisław Staszic Hall. This group was composed of six PASIFIC fellows, namely Piotr Chudziński, Syed Ahmed Shah, Ilyas Djafer-Cherif, Narayan Som, Arun Kumar Awasthi, Marcin Białek (session Chair) and three AMU members, Jan Poleszczuk, Andrzej Katunin and Paweł Malinowski.  

The Life Sciences and Social Sciences & Humanities met at the Hall of Mirrors. This group comprised of  eight PASIFIC fellows, namely Fabricio Borges Carrijo, Imran Sarihasan, Oksana Pochapska, Olha Tikhonova, Navjotpal Kaur, Maciej Bartosiewicz, Matthias Roick, Mariia Dekaliuk (session Chair) and one AMU member – Jacek Kolanowski.

The simultaneous talks allowed to become better acquainted with each other and its conclusion gave way for a lunch served by the Jabłonna Palace restaurant at the Staszic Palace Halls.

Top-notch example

Further highlight of the meeting was a lecture by the ERC Grant Laureates: Prof. Valentina Lepri, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology PAS, Prof. Andrzej Dziembowski, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, and Prof. Wojciech Knap, Institute of High Pressure Physics with Prof. Paweł Rowiński (session Chair). All keynote speakers elaborated on their grant-awarding journey, as well as a first-hand experience of leading a project. The speeches emboldened audience to ask a number of questions on how to develop a career path and lead it for the said ERC grants.

Finger on the map

The final part of the event was a lively panel discussion on “Brain drain vs brain circulation – challenges and opportunities of scientific mobility” followed by a standing cocktail.

The panelists included PASIFIC Fellows: Arun Kumar Awasthi, Mariia Dekaliuk and Matthias Roick, AMU members: Katharina Boguslawski and Marta Gmurek, and Keynote Speaker – Prof. Valentina Lepri. The debate was chaired by dr hab. Michał Tomza, prof. UW, the Faculty of Physics.   We would like to thank all the participants for dialogue, cross-inspiration and deeper socialization. 25^th September brought us the event to be remembered and repeated.