Andrzej Żak, PhD, Eng. from the Faculty of Chemistry has become a scholar under the Fulbright Senior Award programme. During the 2024/25 academic year, he will conduct research at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 

The Fulbright Senior Award is the United States' largest scientific and cultural exchange programme, enabling individuals employed at Polish academic and scientific institutions to carry out independent research or research and teaching projects at a USA-based host institution (i.e. a university, non-profit research institution, or government institution in the United States of America).  

Awarded by the Polish-American Fulbright Commission, the scholarship caters to research and teaching staff at any stage of their post-doctoral career. 

The call for applications for the current edition of the programme ran until June 16. 101 people participated in the competition, where ultimately 16 scholarships were awarded. Among the winners was a scientist from Wrocław Tech’s Faculty of Chemistry, Andrzej Żak, PhD, Eng., who will go to Boston’s prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

A passion for electron microscopy 

 Andrzej Żak, PhD, Eng. works at the Institute of Advanced Materials of the Faculty of Chemistry. His research interests are related to electron microscopy methods, with recent projects focusing on observing light-induced processes.  

Thanks to the Fulbright scholarship, he will work for ten months with the team headed by Prof. Frances M. Ross. “It's one of the best electron microscopy groups in the world, and it's also an incredibly friendly and intimate place with a family-like atmosphere," says Dr Żak, who already worked at MIT for three months in 2022 under the Kosciuszko Foundation programme.

This time, the W3 scientist will spend the entire 2024/25 academic year at the US university to lead a major research project on analysing phase transitions, deposition, and nucleation of metals under light excitation.  

“ The group of Prof. Ross and I share a passion for in-situ electron microscopy,” says Andrzej Żak, PhD, Eng. “Its essence is that instead of performing experiments outside the microscope and examining individual samples from specific time points, we remodel our experiment to perform it inside the electron microscope. 

This will allow processes and transformations in materials to be observed with the precision of single atoms and fractions of a second, making it possible to describe the kinematics of physical processes in a unique way. 

However, this concept requires a great deal of work, and specialised testbeds must be constructed, which in many cases can take many months.

“This is why, during my placement, I will want to combine my experience in light excitation process imaging with the unique competencies of the team headed by Prof. Ross related to the fundamental processes of nucleation and crystal growth, imaged in ultra-high vacuum conditions,” explains the researcher from the Faculty of Chemistry. “It requires an extremely sophisticated apparatus, which I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to experience. I very much hope that together we will open a new chapter in the field of metal deposition on 2D material substrates. 

A sentimental return 

 For Andrzej Żak, PhD, Eng., the return to MIT is a great source of joy and a factor motivating him for further work.

“I’m extremely excited to be back in this incredibly inspiring, active, and ambitious environment and to be able to share my experiences again with the US group, whom I treat as friends. I also hope to transfer some of the good practices from MIT to our Wrocław Tech labs. Of course, it’s difficult to translate the American reality directly into Polish standards, but I believe that there are a lot of good things that we can learn from American universities.”