Nauka

The article discusses the issues of values and social responsibility of universities. On the one hand, the foundations of functioning of universities, which are created by research and education and the role of universities in formation, are recalled. On the other hand, it was reminded that the heart of universities, their DNA, are academic values, defined primarily in the Magna Charta Universitatum, but also in many other documents, such as the Code of Values of the Jagiellonian University. Hence, universities are increasingly often referred to not only as universities of knowledge, but also as universities of wisdom. Together, they are the basis for the social responsibility of universities. However, they alone are not enough for this social responsibility to materialise. Appropriate behaviour and actions are essential. Because knowledge alone is not everything. Such actions are always necessary, but especially when we find ourselves, as a country, humanity and a planet, in a crisis situation related to the climate disaster, which we are already partially experiencing. After the presentation of the most important current facts related to the climate and environmental crisis, the tasks to be undertaken urgently in this context by universities were presented, from broadly understood education, through convincing politicians to ambitious and quick actions, to intensive work on innovative solutions that can contribute to reducing threats brought by the climate and environmental crisis, pointing out, among others, the initiatives proposed by the newly created network of universities U7.

Philosophical concepts have always been closely related to the development of basic sciences. For example, great mathematical theories put forth at the turn of the century, and general theory of relativity were crucial for the advancement of physical sciences and at the same time had a great impact on the formation of a new science philosophy. They also initiated a new era of exploring the Universe, thus opening many issues in the fields of astrophysics and astronomy. In biology, the theory of evolution has greatly impacted the understanding of such fundamental issues as the origin of living species and the occurrence of the phenomenon of life on Earth. Another breakthrough in life sciences was a result of the progress in molecular biology which concerned sequencing genomes and modification of genetic resources of living organisms. These great achievements have led to formation of several new fields of life sciences such as: synthetic biology, systemic biology as well as personalized medicine.

Article published in Science, 2012 by Jennifer A. Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier and their team presented a novel tool named as CRISPR/Cas9. The original CRISPR/Cas9 tool and the whole system developed from it since then allow making precise changes in the nucleotide sequence in the defined locus of the genome. The article presents the already known as well the potential future applications of the system for improvement of cultivated plants. The separate section is devoted to present the background of the Court of Justice decision C-528/16. Discussed are the far reaching negative consequences of this, based not on the merit decision, for the future of European green biotechnology.

Forests may play important role in partial neutralization of CO2 emission. To maximize their potential it is unavoidable to divide them into forests that will be allowed to evolve toward natural state and forest predisposed for timber production, supplemented with forest plantations. Natural forests store almost twice more carbon in biomass and soil than managed forests, and carbon contained in wood from plantations and timber-producing forests will be frozen long time in wooden constructions. Gasification of wood debris instead of burning will allow for production of biocarbon that added to soil will residue there through decades, and will decrease necessary amount of artificial fertilizers, which production is an important source of carbon dioxide. Forests evolving to natural state will be less prone to fire and hurricanes, and will better protect biodiversity. Presented project is not contradictory to the project “The Forest Carbon Farms” of State Forests, but allows to reach better results in shorter time and likely at lower cost.

The article talks about three visits paid in 1609, 1611 and 1612 by prince Janusz Radziwiłł and Daniel Naborowski – one of the most eminent poets of the Polish Baroque – at the court of king James I in London. These visits were related to the wedding plans – Władysław IV Vasa, son of king Sigismund III Vasa, was supposed to marry English princess Elizabeth Stuart. In her honour Naborowski wrote a famous poem entitled "Na oczy królewny angielskiej" ("For English Princess’ Eyes"). During the second visit at the English court, 1st November 1611, Radziwiłł and Naborowski were probably watching the staging of Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" in the Banqueting House in the Palace of Whitehall. The author of the article points out a possible source of Shakespeare’s play which was a text written by a Polish humanist Marcin Kromer, widely known in Europe of those times thanks to its latin translation. Kromer’s text described a story of young prince Sigismund (the future king Sigismund III Vasa) who was born on an island in MalDrm Lake where Eric XIV of Sweden imprisoned his parents: Eric’s brother John III of Sweden and his wife Catherine Jagiellon. A Polish poet Daniel Naborowski might have seen and possibly met William Shakespeare.

Even though the discrimination against women in science have been studied for at least half of the century and any many actions have been taken to promote careers of female researchers, their chances are still far from equal. Many barriers have disappeared, but increasingly precarious model of academic career makes it more difficult for women. The interviews conducted with laureates of prestigious competitions by the Foundation for Polish Science allowed for analysis of what Polish researchers think about the role of gender and parenthood in academic career. The have also served to identify factors that were crucial – according to the interviewed female scientists – for their success in science. As the interviews indicate, the requirements od academic career are the same in case of both: men and women, which could suggest lack of discrimination. On the other hand, the expectation that women will be able to meet the criteria set up by male experiences does not mean equal playing field. To assess real chances for academic success, other non-academic aspects of researchers’ life need to be taken into consideration, especially their limitations for dedicating time to research and for mobility. Young researchers – men as well as women – experience increasing uncertainty in regard to their academic future. Growing competition for employment and research funding, makes it much more difficult for women to fulfil the expectations of a fast-track, mobile career. The interviews formed the basis for identification of support mechanisms in this respect.

The goal of this article is to discuss dynamics hindering women's career in managerial roles of Polish comprehensive universities. Although female academics outnumber their male peers, they remain underrepresented in the management at universities. In the last 30 years, only 2 women held a position of rector. In this article, we analyse the reasons for this phenomenon on the basis of qualitative research performed with the use of individual in-depth interviews, preceded by the analysis of career advancement of individual women. The research has been carried out on a group of 15 women, which currently occupy position of vice-rector or have had position of rector in the past. The results of the analysis show that occupying a position of vice-rector is a key factor determining the chance to obtain a position of rector. This stage of the career helps to consolidate the chosen professional role in the organisation (3 main roles were recognised: expert, researcher and activist). Depending on the type, these roles give greater or lesser opportunities for self-identification in the position of a leader, for adapting to collegial culture of university and as a consequence becoming a rector.

The aim of the paper is to show the scale of preparing habilitation reviews ending with untypical conclusions and the impact of such reviews on the outcome of habilitation proceedings in one discipline – sociology. The general analysis of the outcome of the review comes down to the final conclusion; the detailed analysis proposed by the author also takes into account the degree of strengthening or weakening of this conclusion. In particular, the weakening of a positive conclusion may indicate that the actual evaluation of the work is rather negative and differs from the nominal evaluation. The article begins with a theoretical introduction in which the author analyzes the legal aspects of reviewing the achieve­ments to the habilitation degree, the imperfections of this process indicated in the literature, and briefly refers to American and Polish research in the field of pragmatics of RPT reviews, which provide tools to interpret the mechanism of formulating unobvious conclusions. A study conducted on a sample of 130 habi­litation cases in sociology from 2012–2019 showed that the results of the pro-ceedings were rather consistent with the results of the reviews. Nevertheless, a set of “border proceedings” have been identified that have received reviews with a low degree of certainty (weakened) or some, but divergent, degree of certainty. In their case, the outcome of the proceedings was unpredictable, i.e. proceedings with the same review configuration ended in different ways.

The main purpose of this paper is to describe the specificity of Polish academic institutions that employ foreign-born scholars. The empirical material comes from a two-year research project, involving 100 qualitative in-depth interviews with “international” employees and additional 20 with their Polish colleagues, mainly supervisors. The study demonstrated that the organizational units of universities and research institutes employing foreign-born scholars could be divided into four basic types: language departments, “special units” (focused on international cooperation or advanced studies), laboratories, and the “islands.” An additional category is composed of the centers where the academic staff shortage is a serious problem, but this category, unlike the others, is likely to be seriously affected by the ongoing higher education reform. The article adopts a neo-institutional perspective, which enables to analyze these types of units in terms of institutional work (including construction of normative networks, defining, vesting), done by the foreign-born employees.

In this paper we described three Art & Science projects organized by the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology (Polish Academy of Sciences), Marcel Nencki Foundation for the Support of Biological Sciences and the Art Department of the University of Rzeszów. First project, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Nencki Institute, was entitled “Biological imaging: inspiration by invisible world” and took place in Mikołajki in 2017. Next two projects were relating to “Art of Biodiversity” (Rzeszów, 2018) and “Power of Biological Structures” (Przeworsk, 2019). The aim of the projects was to introduce ideas of modern experimental biology to artist. All symposia/workshops were followed by few exhibitions at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Art Department of the University of Rzeszów, etc. Some of paintings originated during these projects established Nencki Art Collection, collection of modern art at Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology.

Professor Lech Wojtczak spent his entire scientific life at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, where he worked since 1947. He is the author or co-author of two hundred scientific papers, promoted 15 doctors of science, was the Full Member of PAS and has been awarded with several prizes and honors. Among his students are three successive directors of the Nencki Institute, the authors of the present article. Scientific interests of Professor Lech Wojtczak were always dealing with bioenergectics, a discipline that he led in Poland and Eastern-Central Europe. In particular, his studies focused on the role of fatty acids and their derivatives on bioenergetics, on the regulatory role of surface potential of biomembranes on enzymatic and transport activities, on the regulatory role of calcium and magnesium in mitochondria, on the role of free oxigen radicals in bioenergetics, etc. Apart from being a great scientist, Lech Wojtczak was also a fantastic teacher, and an excellent scientific supervisor. Being well recognized in the world, he was placing members of his research group in foreignlaboratories, as well as was sending tchem to courses and conferences. This was opening their minds to the world, and to other cultures, and allowed Lech Wojtczak to form from his collaborators the next generation of good scientists and future leaders. The list of the most important pupils of Professor Wojtczak is given in the article. Lech was also excellent in social contacts, and in creating a friendly atmosphere. Together with his wife Anna, they kept an open home, often inviting collaborators to parties that usually led to long scientific discussions. With the sudden death of Pofessor Lech Wojtczak Polish science suffered a great loss. This eminent researcher, the father of Polish bioenergetics, but also a warm and modest person, will be dearly missed.

On September 16, 2019, prof. dr hab. Janusz Haman, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences passed away. The death of the Professor is a great loss not only for the family, but also for the entire national scientific community of agricultural engineering – the discipline of which he was the creator in Poland, and at the same time one of the greatest authority on an international scale. He has worked for almost 20 years at the Central Qualification Committee for Scientific Personnel (formerly CKK) at the Prime Minister’s office. For three terms he was a member of the Main Council of Science and Higher Education and the State Awards Commission. For two terms he was a member of the Science and Technology Council. He was the vice-chairman of the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Agriculture for five consecutive terms. He was a member of many scientific councils, including three terms of chairmanship of the IMER Council and OIN PAN. He also actively worked in the TNOiK structure, where he was the president of the Lublin Branch and NOT, being the president of the Lublin Branch of SIMP. In recognition of the great merits for creative activity, in particular for the development of agricultural sciences, Professor Haman was awarded four times with the highest academic dignity, which is an honoris causa doctorate, and also repeatedly decorated by the state authorities: Crosses – Knight's, Officer's and Commander's with the Star of the Order of Rebirth of Poland, Distinguished Teacher PRL, National Education Medal, Copernicus and Oczapowski Medal.