Full professorship conferred on TUL scientists

Andrzej Duda, President of the Republic of Poland, on November 28th, conferred the title of full professor on academic teachers, scientists, and arts scholars. Among them were three scientists from Lodz University of Technology: professor Łukasz Albrecht of the Faculty of Chemistry, professor Grażyna Budryn and professor Elżbieta Klewicka, both of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences.

Professor Łukasz Albrecht (born 1980) is a professor of natural and life sciences at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, the Faculty of Chemistry, TUL. He graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry, TUL,  with a degree in chemistry of biologically relevant molecules in 2004. His doctoral dissertation, defended in 2009, was distinguished with the Award of the Prime Minister as well as the Sigma-Aldrich and the Polish Chemical Society awards.

Having defended his doctoral thesis, he was granted a scholarship by the Foundation for Polish Science. The scholarship allowed him to start postdoctoral training as a member of the research team of Professor Karl Anker Jørgensen, Aarhus University, Denmark, which lasted over three years.

In 2013, he returned to Poland to the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, where he started to build a new research group working on asymmetric catalysis powered by chiral organic catalysts, which was made possible by winning funding under the Lider program of the National Centre for Research and Development.

In 2015 he was awarded a postdoctoral degree in chemical sciences. He is a co-author of more than 80 publications in JCR journals and several book chapters. He has been the promoter of two already completed and six pending doctoral theses.

The research conducted by professor Albrecht is related to one of the most important current trends in contemporary organic chemistry, i.e. asymmetric catalysis. It is concerned with the synthesis and use of catalysts of strictly defined spatial structure. His research group design, modify and use biologically relevant molecules in synthesis. The group's research outputs may serve as innovative tools for the development of new drugs, pesticides, and other organic compounds of great utilitarian relevance.

Professor Elżbieta Klewicka of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, TUL, is a professor of agricultural sciences and specializes in technical microbiology. Her research interests include probiotics, prebiotics, human intestinal microbiota, functional food, and microbiological safety of food. In 2012, she was awarded the postdoctoral degree in technical sciences in the discipline of biotechnology. Since 1997, she has been working at the Institute of Fermentation Technology and Microbiology, the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, TUL.

Professor Klewicka's body of research work encompasses 150 publications and reports in Polish and English. She has participated in "Gut Microbiota" workshops in the Netherlands. She has participated in 11 research grants (twice as a principal investigator and lead researcher) and 5 research and development projects commissioned by the industry (Wytwórnia Surowic i Szczepionek BIOMED S.A. in Cracow, Zakłady Przemysłu Owocowo-Warzywnego AGROS - ŁOWICZ, Multipharma Sweden AB, Gothenburg, Sweden, Mifarmex Warsaw).

One of the fruits of scientific cooperation with researchers from the Children's Memorial Health Institute and the Wytwórnia Surowic i Szczepionek BIOMED S.A. in Cracow is an invention developed and implemented as a probiotic preparation LATOPIC, to support conventional therapy and prevention of atopic dermatitis in children - the invention has been granted patent protection.

Professor Klewicka has been a reviewer of papers for journals indexed in the Scopus and WoS databases, as well as an evaluation expert for the NCN, NCBIR, and CIOP-BiP. She is an academic teacher. She is a lecturer in microbiology at three faculties of Lodz University of Technology.  Shehas been a mentor for early stage researchers. Currently, she provides research guidance and supervision to three doctoral students.

Grażyna Budryn is a professor of agricultural sciences, a graduate of the Faculty of Food Chemistry and Biotechnology, currently known as the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, TUL (1993). After graduation, she started working at the Institute of Food Chemistry and Technology, which now operates under the name of the Institute of Food Technology and Analysis. Since 2018, she has served as its director having previously been the deputy director for science. In 2006, she defended her doctoral thesis with a distinction, and in 2013, she earned her postdoctoral degree. She has held the post of TUL Associate Professor since 2018.

Professor Budryn's research interests include separation, purification, and identification of health-promoting food components, determination of biological activity of nutraceuticals based on the study of interactions with body proteins with calorimetric and spectral methods. In her research, she also investigates applications of bioactive constituents to health-promoting food, increasing their content in raw materials, stabilization of nutraceuticals in food processing and storage.

She has completed 11 research grants funded by OP IE, NCBiR and NCN, including six where she was the principal investigator and lead researcher. She collaborates with foreign institutions in Canada, Spain, and Belarus. She has been a promoter of 3 doctoral candidates, one of whom has completed his doctoral thesis and was awarded a doctoral degree. Her scientific output includes 2 monographs, 4 chapters in monographs, 63 publications, including 51 articles in journals on the Thomson Reuters master journal list, 6 patents, and 2 industrial implementations, as well as many expert opinions and reviews commissioned by institutions financing research, universities, courts, and businesses.

Professor Grażyna Budryn serves on the Board of the Polish Society of Food Technologists, Łódź Chapter, and is a member of the Polish Society of Calorimetry and Thermal Analysis. She is also a member of the Interdisciplinary Group of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for the support of research infrastructure. She has worked on scientific and organizational committees at numerous international and national conferences. She has been promoting science by delivering a large number of lectures for various foundations and societies. Her research accomplishments have been recognized and rewarded with awards and distinctions.