Seated at the central table were Professor Krzysztof Jóźwik, the rector, Professor Tomasz Kubiak, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Łukasz Kaczmarek, Head of the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Piotr Kula, longtime former Head of the Institute, and Professor Zbigniew Gawroński, secretary of the group of academics who had introduced Materials Science and Engineering as a field of study at Lodz University of Technology.
The rector, during his congratulatory address, remarked on the significance of the science which informs the function of materials. ‘That is why it has such a large range of applications across medicine, many industries, and also in the work of artists’, offered Professor Jóźwik.
The seeds for academic training in materials science and engineering were planted in the Polish soil by Professor Stefan Wojciechowski of the Warsaw University of Technology in the early 1970s., whereas it was Professor Zofia Wendorff who introduced it at Lodz University of Technology.
In the movie presented by Professor Łukasz Kaczmarek, Head of the Institute, we saw present-day innovative technologies developed at the Institute of Materials Engineering for the manufacturing industry, the automotive industry, biocomposites, artificial organs and implants, thermochemical processing, renewable energy sources, and aviation. Many of them have been deployed worldwide, something that is also a result of close cooperation between the researchers and the business community, ‘We train strategic personnel’, said prof. Kaczmarek, listing the efforts to harness the potential of hydrogen as an example.
Among some of the longstanding business and project partners who supported the celebration with more than just their presence were: Seco/Warwick, Malow Suwałki, Struers, and Hart-Tech. Indeed, cooperation whose results can be commercially exploited and implemented underpins international success of technologies developed by researchers and business.
Katarzyna Sawka, Vice President Marketing at Seco/Warwick, reminisced about the first project carried out in partnership with Lodz University of Technology in 1998. The next 25 years have resulted in a total of 21, with large-area graphene production being a major one.
Any anniversary celebration would not be complete without good wishes. Those came from, among others, collaborators from Polish universities, the Polish Society for Materials Science, as well as the World Academy of Materials and Manufacturing Engineering WAMME. Several alumni shared fond memories of their time at the university with all of those present at Professor Tadeusz Paryjczak auditorium and, while talking about their current jobs, some in international setting, insisted that the their successful careers have grown out of here: the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Łódź.
The event allowed the hosts to showcase achievements and advancements made in materials science and engineering at Lodz University of Technology and was a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday at the university.