NCN Award winner in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr Anna Matysiak, The SGH Warsaw School of Economics
Scientific achievement: integrating research perspectives (micro- and macroscale studies, quantitative and qualitative approaches) for the study of the evolution of the family in Europe and its determinants, using advanced social process modelling techniques
The award in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences was granted to Anna Matysiak based on her research into transformations of the modern family model from a comparative perspective. In her studies Anna Matysiak explores the processes of formation, development and dissolution of families as well as the factors determining those processes. She combines demography, labour economics and social politics, using a wide range of advanced methods of quantitative analysis. Her work is unique as it is the only comparative study of the relationship between the number of women active in the labour market and fertility rates where countries of East-Central Europe have been presented symmetrically alongside countries with developed market economies.
NCN Award winner in Life Sciences
Dr hab. Andrzej Stanisław Dziembowski, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics Polish Academy of Sciences and University of Warsaw
Scientific achievement: discovering the mechanism of action of the main eukaryotic ribonuclease, the exosome complex, and the function of the C16orf57 genes whose mutations cause poikiloderma with neutropenia
The award for remarkable achievements in the field of Life Sciences has been given to Andrzej Dziembowski, an eminent young molecular biologist whose notable achievement is having discovered the function of the human C16orf57 gene. Until recently the role of the gene in cells had remained entirely enigmatic despite its mutation incidence in such rare diseases as poikiloderma with neutropenia, Rothmund-Thomson syndrome or dyskeratosis congenita. Dziembowski and his collaborators found out that the protein encoded by the USB1 gene is the enzyme responsible for the process of gene expression. In their research the team used a number of advanced experimental techniques, including yeast cell screening, biochemical tests of pre-mRNA splicing in vitro, or analyses employing RNA interference in human cell cultures. These studies will bring us closer to understanding the cause and nature of the disease poikiloderma with neutropenia.
On 4 June 2013, Dziembowski was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for outstanding achievements in promoting Polish science.
NCN Award winner in Physical Sciences and Engineering
Prof. Dr hab. Piotr Garstecki, Institute of Physical Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences
Scientific achievement: innovative research on the dynamics of complex fluids, as well their applications in microbiology and biochemistry
In his greatest achievement thus far, Piotr Garstecki developed our understanding of the physics and structure of innovative microfluidic systems. He was the first to explain the formation of droplets in microscale, and his works on the subject belong to some of the most widely cited papers in the field. Garstecki has set up a research team at the Department of Physical Chemistry, PAS, where he now works on microfluidics for automated high-throughput tools for studies in chemistry, biochemistry and microbiology. He is the author of many publications devoted to the way in which such innovative tools can be applied in biochemistry and microbiology.
On 4 June 2013, for his contribution to science, the President of Poland awarded him with a Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.