AUTHORITIES 2020-2024
Director of the Doctoral School
prof. dr hab. Francesco Giacosa
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7290-9366
Prof. Francesco Giacosa, Ph.D., is a theoretical physicist at the Institute of Physics of Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce.
He graduated from the University of Turin (1996-2001) and obtained his doctorate from the University of Tübingen (2005). He worked as an assistant professor at the University of Frankfurt (2005-2014) and obtained his habilitation in 2013, after which he became a lecturer. Since 2014, he has been an associate professor at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, and since 2017, he has been the head of doctoral studies in the discipline of physical sciences. In 2020, he became a full professor and took over as the head of the Department of High-Energy Physics.
He conducts research mainly in the field of elementary particles and the foundations of quantum mechanics. He participates in the work of international research teams from universities and institutes in countries such as Germany, the United States, Italy, and Hungary. He is the leader of two NCN grants, the coordinator of two ULAM projects with NAWA, and a participant in the DFG, BMBF, and DAAD projects. He reviews scientific projects for NCN, DFG, and FWF.
He has authored over 190 scientific publications, e.g.: Fate of the critical endpoint at large Nc (Editor’s suggestion of “Physical Review D”), Multichannel Decay law (“Physics Letters B” – sole author), and Boosting unstable particles (“Physical Review A”). He is a reviewer for several international scientific journals.
Until 2024, he had supervised six doctoral students.
Deputy Director of the Doctoral School
Prof. dr hab. Lidia Michalska-Bracha
lidia.michalska-bracha@ujk.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0691-7429
Prof. Lidia Michalska-Bracha, PhD is a historian and museum specialist, a professor at the Institute of History of Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce.
She is a collaborator of the Commission for Theory and History of Historiography and Methodology of History at the Polish Academy of Sciences (2020-2023), a member of the Council of the National Museum in Kielce appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2013-2026), a member of the ministerial Advisory Team for projects submitted under the Support for Scientific Journals program (2018-2021), a member of the first Council of the Jan Kochanowski University (2019-2020), and the Vice-Dean for Research of the Faculty of Humanities at Jan Kochanowski University (2012-2019). She is a scholarship holder of the Historical and Literary Society in Paris named after Dr. Maria Zdziarska-Zaleska and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow. External stakeholder of the Doctoral School of the University of Rzeszow.
Her research interests include the history of historiography and historical thought of the 19th-20th centuries, cultural memory and women’s history, the January Uprising, the fate of Poles in emigration and Siberia in the 19th century, as well as the history of Galicia and Lviv. She has participated in the work of international research teams, including projects under the National Program for the Development of Humanities: Memoirs and Letters of Polish Authors from the Western Krai (Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine) from the period of 1795-1918, and Polish Exiles in Western Siberia in the Second Half of the 18th-19th Centuries in the Eyes of Russians and Siberian People.
She is the author of over 150 scientific publications, including several recently published monographs: Memoirs of Emilia from Szwarców Heurichowa (1819-1905) and her daughter Teodora from Heurichów Kiśląnska (1844-1920) from the time of the January Uprising, Warsaw 2023 (jointly with E. Noiński); Józef Kajetan Janowski (1832-1914). After the January Uprising… An Emigrant, a Veteran of 1863, a Lwowian by Choice, Warsaw 2021; Memoirs of Wanda from Wolskich Umińska (1841-1926), Warsaw 2020 (jointly with E. Noiński); The Sanctuary of Józef Piłsudski in Kielce. Between Memory and Historical Politics of the Second Polish Republic, Kielce 2018 (jointly with R. Kotowski).
Dr. Michalska-Bracha has experience in educating young scholars, having promoted five PhD candidates and providing academic supervision to three subsequent doctoral students.
Heads of sections of the Doctoral School
Head of section for ‘Human Sciences’
dr hab. Grzegorz Miernik, prof. UJK
https://orcid.org/000-0003-0924-7408
Dr. hab. Grzegorz Miernik, historian, professor at the Institute of History.
A graduate of the University of Silesia in Katowice (1984). Associated with the Jan Kochanowski University since 1987. Defended his doctoral dissertation in 1995 at the Faculty of Humanities of the former Higher Pedagogical School in Kielce. Obtained the post-doctoral degree in 2008 at the Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce based on the thesis titled “Us” and “Them”. The Society of Kielce Region and the Stalinist System of Power. This work was awarded the KLIO Prize in the category of scientific monographs (2008). In 2017, the book “Disgraced” about the village of Okół was distinguished. Tales of rebellion, written by Dariusz Jarosz (IH PAN) and Grzegorz Miernik, was awarded the “Polityka” Historical Prize in the category of scientific and popular science works.
He researches the recent history of Poland, particularly social and economic history. Author and co-author of several monographs. He has published nearly a hundred scientific and popular science articles. He has been the editor and co-editor of several collective works.
He has been the supervisor of around 100 master’s theses and several bachelor’s theses. He has experience in educating young scholars, having supervised eight doctoral students so far. He has been a reviewer in habilitation and doctoral procedures.
From 1996 to 2002, he was the deputy director of the Institute of History. For over a decade, he has been the Head of Doctoral Studies in the discipline of history. For four years, he has been the Head of the Humanities Section at the Doctoral School of the Jan Kochanowski University. He is a co-founder of the Polish Society of Economic History, where he has held various positions in the authorities.
Head of section for ‘Natural Sciences’
dr hab. Alicja Wzorek, prof. UJK
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9041-7034
Dr. Alicja Wzorek, an organic chemist, is a professor at the Institute of Chemistry.
She has been associated with Jan Kochanowski University since her undergraduate studies. Since 2003, she has worked as an assistant at the Institute of Chemistry. She completed her doctoral dissertation and defended it at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, in 2009. She obtained her habilitation degree in 2019 at the Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences in Łódź.
Her scientific interests revolve around supramolecular chemistry, synthesis of biologically active compounds, chiral compounds, and methods of their enantiomeric enrichment.
She collaborates with scientists from various research centers in Poland (Wrocław, Łódź) and worldwide (Japan, Germany, Spain). She has been a recipient of DAAD and DFG scholarships. She is a co-author of several dozen original scientific articles, including Chemistry Society Reviews, and she is also a co-inventor of 10 patents in Poland and several new patent applications.
During her teaching career, she has supervised 15 undergraduate theses and 11 master’s theses, as well as serving as an assistant supervisor for doctoral dissertations. She has been a mentor for three-month research internships of students from Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo.
She is a member of the Polish Chemical Society and the organizing committee of the Regional Chemistry Olympiad.
Head of the section for ‘Social Sciences’
dr hab. Leszek Bielecki, prof. UJK
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1553-1141
PhD in Legal Sciences, specializing in Administrative Law, Financial Law, Public Economic Law, Administrative Proceedings, Tax Proceedings, Labor Law, and Social Security Law, and Civil Service Law. Doctor of Law, Master of Administration, and Master of Law. Professor at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Head of the Department of Economic and Financial Law, and Head of the Social Sciences Section at the Doctoral School of UJK in Kielce.
Author of over 100 publications, participant in numerous national and international conferences, sessions, and scientific congresses. Former lecturer at several private higher education institutions (WSB in Radom, WSHP in Sandomierz, WSEPiNM in Kielce). Civil servant of the second degree in the tax administration, holding various managerial positions throughout their career (department head, deputy head of the tax office, head of the tax office, director of the chamber of tax administration). Former part-time member of the Local Disciplinary Board in Lublin. Former member of the Main Adjudicating Committee for Cases of Violation of Public Finance Discipline. Since May 6, 2020, judge at the Supreme Court in the Chamber of Labor and Social Security.
Deputy Head of the Social Sciences Section
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5996-9754
Dr. Anna Róg, a social pedagogue, is an assistant professor at the Institute of Pedagogy, Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. She graduated from the Higher Pedagogical School in Częstochowa in 1999. In 2005, she defended her doctoral dissertation titled “Functioning of SOS Children’s Villages in local communities” at the University of Opole. Since 2009, she has been affiliated with the Institute of Pedagogy at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, where she has been serving as the deputy director for education since 2012.
Her research interests are primarily focused on three areas: the functioning of single mothers’ families in the context of their roles and the possibilities of fulfilling family-assigned functions, as well as factors determining the process of single mothers’ self-reliance and independence from broadly understood social assistance; the functioning of contemporary families and the activities of institutions supporting and replacing the family; social prevention, aimed not only at combating factors harmful to health but also at creating conditions for the full self-realization of individuals and developing personal and social skills that influence the building of self-worth and the construction of satisfying interpersonal relationships.
She is a mentor and reviewer of dozens of diploma theses and an assistant mentor of two doctoral theses. She is the author or co-author of 5 monographs, nearly 50 articles in monographs and scientific journals, and a co-editor of 5 monographs. She is a member of the Polish Pedagogical Society.
Head of the section for ‘Medical and Health Sciences’
dr hab. Wioletta Adamus – Białek, prof. UJK
wioletta.adamus-bialek@ujk.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6129-0492
Dr. Wioletta Adamus-Białek, D.Sc., microbiologist, geneticist, professor of health sciences at the Collegium Medicum of Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce.
In 2003, she completed her studies in biology at the Świętokrzyska Academy in Kielce and then began her doctoral studies at the University of Łódź in collaboration with the Polish Academy of Sciences Center for Medical Biology in Łódź. She also completed postgraduate studies in “Commercialization and Knowledge Transfer Management” at UJK and “Healthcare Organization Management” at the Warsaw School of Economics. Currently, she is the head of the Medical Genetics Laboratory at the Department of Medical Procedures, Institute of Medical Sciences, UJK. She is a co-founder and longtime chairperson of the Polish Society of Microbiologists, Kielce Branch. She has conducted research internships at the Karolinska Institute, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC) in Stockholm, the School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia in Norwich, the Warsaw Medical University in Warsaw, and the Department of Genetics and Pathomorphology, Center for New Technologies, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin.
She has supervised numerous bachelor’s and master’s theses in environmental protection and biotechnology at UJK and served as an auxiliary supervisor for two doctoral dissertations at the Institute of Health Sciences. Currently, she is a supervisor for a doctoral dissertation.
Her scientific interests include urinary tract pathogens, particularly E. coli. Currently, she is involved in research on the genetic basis of pancreatic diseases and the human microbiome.
She is the author or co-author of 29 scientific publications with a cumulative Impact Factor of 52.42.
Head of Arts
dr hab. Katarzyna Ziołowicz, prof. UJK
katarzyna.ziolowicz@ujk.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3591-1536
The plastic artist works in the areas of drawing and ceramics, specializing in aesthetic and regional education. She is a graduate of the Art Faculty of the Higher Pedagogical School in Częstochowa (now the Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa), where she graduated with honors in the ceramics studio under the supervision of Dr. Anna Stawiarska. In 2015, she obtained the postdoctoral degree at the Faculty of Graphics and Painting of the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. She defended her doctoral thesis in pedagogy in 2007 at the Educational Research Institute in Warsaw.
Since 1999, she has been associated with the Institute of Visual Arts at the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. She served as the director from 2017 to 2020 and has been the dean of the newly established Faculty of Art since 2020. The artist has authored several solo exhibitions, including those in Busko-Zdrój, Kielce, Krakow, Puławy, Sandomierz, Tarnów, Warsaw, as well as in Kamieniec Podolski, Równe, Vinnytsia in Ukraine, and Kosice in Slovakia. She has participated in over 200 group exhibitions, primarily drawing-related, significant for this art field in national and international reviews.
She is a laureate of awards and distinctions, including the Award of the Contemporary Art Gallery Oranżeria of the House of Creative Environments of the Tomasz Zieliński Palace in Kielce in the 43rd Interdisciplinary Visual Arts Competition of the Świętokrzyskie Province “Przedwiośnie 2020”, distinctions in the 10th International Drawing Biennale in Melbourne (Australia) 2019, finalist of the Nano Art competition in Paris (France) 2019, 2nd prize in the 6th International Drawing Biennale in Melbourne 2011, collective award for the National Polish Collection at the World Gallery of Art On Paper Drawings, Skopje (Macedonia) 2010.
Her achievements include not only artistic works but also scientific and critical publications, including editorial work on collective monographs. She participates in national and international scientific and artistic conferences, contributing to the discourse in the field of art education.
She is a member of the International Triennial of Graphic Arts in Krakow, the Association of Polish Artists in the Kielce region, the Polish Association of Art Education Delegation in Kielce, actively working towards activating artistic life in Kielce, the Świętokrzyskie region, including the candidacy of Kielce for the title of European Capital of Culture 2029. In 2021, she was awarded the Lecturer of the Year title by the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, as chosen by the students, and the Personality of the Year in the Świętokrzyskie Province in the Science category in 2020, in a plebiscite organized by the Polish Press Group. She carries out individual artistic projects aimed at exploring new expressive values in drawing and graphic techniques.