Prof. Michał Przewoźniczek and Prof. Maciej Zięba from our Faculty are among 18 new researchers appointed to Academia Professorum Iuniorum for the 2026–2027 term of office.

Academia Professorum Iuniorum was established in October 2023 by WUST Rector Prof. Arkadiusz Wójs. It represents one of the key elements of our university's activities aimed at promoting scientific excellence. Its main task is to select and support a group of outstanding, young, independent scientists representing various disciplines and building research teams or undertaking new research topics.

On Friday, the first eighteen members of the Academia finished their 2024–2025 term of office. During the end-of-term meeting, Prof. Dariusz Łydżba, Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation, and Prof. Katarzyna Matczyszyn, Rector’s Plenipotentiary for Academia Professorum Iuniorum, awarded them with special commemorative diplomas.

We also learned the names of eighteen researchers appointed by the Rector for the 2026–2027 term of office. Including the eighteen researchers appointed in 2024, the total number of Academia Professorum Iuniorum members is 36.

New members are selected annually. They all receive a two-year internal grant of PLN 120,000. It may be used to cover expenses related to forming or expanding a research team or to undertake a new research topic.

The members of Academia Professorum Iuniorum for the 2026–2027 term of office include the following researchers from our Faculty: Prof. Michał Przewoźniczek from the Department of Systems and Computer Networks and Prof. Maciej Zięba from the Department of Artificial Intelligence.

Prof. Michał Przewoźniczek (Faculty of Information and Communication Technology)

Discipline: Information and Communication Technology

As a specialist in Evolutionary Optimisation, he worked at the University of York, and from March 2026, he will be a visiting professor at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam.

He researches hidden features of problems and their application in optimization. He has participated in and led numerous grants sponsored by the National Science Centre (NCN) and the National Centre for Research and Development.

He has received awards at leading international conferences in the field of Evolutionary Computing and at the Intelligent Development Forum.

More information: przewozniczek.eu.

Prof. Maciej Zięba (Faculty of Information and Communication Technology)

Discipline: Information and Communication Technology

His research interests focus on artificial intelligence, particularly generative models and counterfactual explanation methods. He is the founder and supervisor of the genwro.ai research group.

He has co-authored numerous publications delivered at the most prestigious conferences in the field, such as NeurIPS, CVPR, and ICML.

At our Faculty, he serves as the Deputy Head for Research at the Department of Artificial Intelligence. He has participated in 13 research grants, including three times as a project manager for Opus projects funded by the National Science Centre.

The researchers appointed for the new term of office also include:

• Prof. Joanna Jabłońska (Faculty of Architecture)
• Prof. Łukasz Sterczewski (Faculty of Electronics, Photonics and Microsystems)
• Prof. Maciej Skowron (Faculty of Electrical Engineering)
• Prof. Witold Dyrka (Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology)
• Prof. Konrad Szustakiewicz (Faculty of Chemistry)
• Prof. Anna Hoła (Faculty of Civil Engineering)
• Prof. Lech Sznitko (Faculty of Chemistry)
• Prof. Magdalena Kobielarz (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering)
• Prof. Tomasz Kurzynowski (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering)
• Prof. Ryszard Błażej (Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology)
• Prof. Jolanta Dąbrowska (Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology)
• Prof. Bartosz Trojan (Faculty of Mathematics)
• Prof. Joanna Feder-Kubis (Faculty of Chemistry)
• Prof. Daniel Strub (Faculty of Chemistry)
• Prof. Maciej Pieczarka (Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology)