Excellenceair Podcast

My guest today is Dr. Joanna Cywińska-Raczkowska head of the Open University, where she leads the Lifelong Learning initiative. Her work focuses on making education more accessible beyond traditional university studies, with courses and training that help people develop new professional, digital and communication competences. We’ll talk about why learning doesn’t have to stop with a degree, how microcredentials can help us document the skills we acquire, and what the university of the future might look like.

Our guest today is prof. Małgorzata Maj from NCU CM’s Faculty of Medicine, Department of Urology and Andrology. She is a researcher whose work brings together stem cell biology, regenerative medicine and cancer research.

Our guest today is dr Magdalena Wujak - professionally connected with NCU’s Collegium Medicum, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry. 

She is a biomedical researcher whose work mostly explores the molecular mechanisms and therapeutic vulnerabilities of lung diseases bridging basic mechanistic studies with preclinical evaluation.

Our today’s guest is prof. Arkadiusz Gut from the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, where he heads the Department of Cognitive Science.

With a PhD in Philosophy and in Psychology, he has been one of the driving forces behind the development of cognitive science in Poland, contributing to the field through his research, academic leadership, and interdisciplinary collaborations. 

It’s a pleasure to have you here today!

Our today’s quest is prof. Marta Ziegler-Borowska connected with the Faculty of Chemistry. Her highly interdisciplinary research portfolio is situated at the interface of chemistry, biomaterials, nanotechnology, biotechnology and biomedicine. 

As she says herself, she’s most fond of building bridges: between science and industry, different disciplines, and most importantly: people.

It’s a pleasure to have you here today!

Our today’s guest is dr Dorota Chełminiak-Dudkiewicz - connected with the Faculty of Chemistry, she’s a researcher involved in interdisciplinary healthcare-oriented research projects connecting diagnostics, therapy, and advanced biomaterials, showing how modern chemistry increasingly operates at the intersection of science and medicine.

Our today’s guest is prof. Katarzyna Stadnicka - professionally connected with NCU Collegium Medicum - Department of Oncology, Faculty of Health Sciences.

Her research sits at the crossroads of molecular biology, microbiology, nutrition, and medicine.

A recent Laureate of the OPUS 30 competition with the Project PIVOT, she investigates how probiotics, postbiotics, and other bioactive compounds influence biological processes at the molecular level, with the goal of developing innovative strategies for disease prevention and treatment.

It’s a pleasure to have you here today!

Our today’s guest is prof. Katarzyna Hrynkiewicz - the NCU professor connected with the Faculty of Veterinary and Biological Sciences and currently the Head of the Microbiology Department. In her work she explores a world that can’t be seen, but one that plays a huge role in how plants grow, survive, and stay healthy—the world of microbes.

Get ready to fly high!

Our guest today is dr Michael Pleyer, a linguist and researcher at the Center for Language Evolution Studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

His research has focused on two fundamental questions: how language evolved and how it is acquired. He studies the cognitive and social mechanisms behind the emergence of language, as well as the role of perspective-taking and pretend play in children's language development.

Dr. Pleyer is currently leading an OPUS project exploring polysemy — how words develop multiple meanings and what this reveals about the evolutionary dynamics of language.

Our today’s guest is prof. Katharina Boguslawski, a quantum chemist, whose research combines chemistry, physics, mathematics and applied computer science. 

Before joining Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in 2016, she gained international research experience in Zurich and Canada, and since then she has built an impressive scientific career supported by prestigious grants, including NCN, NCBiR, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and an ERC Starting Grant.

Today, she leads her own research group at the Institute of Physics at NCU, where her team works on advancing modern quantum-chemical methods.