Two PhD students from WUST - Paweł Holewa and Mikołaj Janicki - have become winners of the eighth Etiuda competition. The competition results were announced by the National Centre for Science. Our young scientists will receive grants worth 100 thousand PLN for their research.

In total, the NCS will fund 84 grants for PhD students conducting basic research who are now taking their first steps on the path of a scientific career. As many as 448 young doctoral students applied, 84 of which received funding.

The winners will receive scientific scholarships of 5,000 PLN per month for the period of the development of their doctoral dissertations. Also, they are going to go on a placement, lasting from 3 to 6 months, at a foreign scientific centre of their choice. They will receive 12 thousand PLN per month to cover the costs connected with their stay abroad and up to 10 thousand PLN to cover travel expenses.

People pursuing various scientific disciplines, including three essential fields: the humanities, social and art sciences, science and technology and life sciences, applied for funds for their research under the ETIUDA 8 competition.

WUST’s winners

Mikołaj Janicki is a PhD student at the Faculty of Chemistry, where he is working on his doctoral thesis entitled “Theoretical Research into the Influence of Environment on the Photochemical and Photophysical Properties of Selected Heterocyclic Compounds” under the supervision of Professor Robert Góry.

- I aim to deepen the knowledge about complicated mechanisms of photochemical reactions, activated by ultraviolet radiation, which have been applied in many fields of science, including the chemical research into the beginning of life on earth and photodynamic therapy – explains Mikołaj Janicki. - One of the main research points I’ve focused on during the development of the PhD dissertation is understanding the role of solvent molecules in photochemical reactions of biologically important chemical compounds and their precursors. I’m carrying out the said research using advanced quantum chemistry calculation methods - says the W3 doctoral student.

Under the scholarship, Mikołaj Janicki will go on a placement to Harvard University, to the Center for Astrophysics, headed by Professor Dimitar Sasselov.

“The Growth and Characterisation of Optical Amplification Based on InAs/InP Quantum Dots for Telecommunication and Optoelectronic Applications" is the subject of the PhD thesis to be written by our second winner Paweł Holewa. His supervisor at the Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology is University Professor Marcin Syperek, PhD, DSc. 

- My research focuses on creating appropriate quantum dots, capable of integration with the silicon technology and emitting single photons in the spectral range relevant for medium and long-range quantum telecommunications - explains Paweł Holewa. - Ultra-safe fibre optical communications require the use of quantum properties of single particles of light, i.e. photons. However, the essential issue is to develop a suitable photon. Semiconductor quantum dots are very good candidates for sources of single photons. The semiconductor technology enables wide control of their properties. The problem standing in the way to applying quantum dots is the low extraction of single photons and compatibility in terms of material with modern silicon-based optoelectronics - explains the W11 PhD student.

He conducts his research in cooperation with the Laboratory of Optical Nanostructures Spectroscopy of Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the Danish Technical University in Copenhagen, where he will be awarded a placement under the supervision of Professor Elizaveta Semenova.