Among those recognised in this year’s edition of the competition were students of geology from our university. Again, they were appreciated for their enthusiasm and ambitious projects. As started in the award justification: “They travel to the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, copper mines, or sail to Spitsbergen aboard an ocean-going yacht in search of rock samples, while in the centre of Wrocław they use vacuum cleaners on rooftops to collect micrometeorites from urban dust.”

For the members of the Student Research Group of Geologists at the University of Wrocław, there are no limits to exploring the world. This is definitely not the first, nor the last, distinction recognising their scientific activity.

In the summer of 2025, a group of students from the Student Research Group of Geologists embarked on a two-week scientific voyage to Spitsbergen aboard the sailing ship “Generał Zaruski”. They are already planning another research expedition, but this time to the Gulf of Bothnia to investigate impact craters, remnants of meteorite collisions.

We keep our fingers crossed for their future projects!

Another researcher honoured in the “Creative Minds of Wrocław” competition was Dr Antoine Haaker from the University Library. We are delighted by this distinction and warmly congratulate him.

Antoine Haaker has gained recognition not only as a scholar and author of a doctoral dissertation, his 800-page Latin thesis “Specimen editionis criticae Claudii Salmasii vitae a Philiberto de La Mare conscriptae”, was the first doctoral dissertation written in Latin in Wrocław since 1966 but above all as a “hunter” of stolen and lost works of art and manuscripts. The University Library employee has already located several medieval and Renaissance manuscripts as well as valuable early printed books that once belonged to the library’s collections, and, most importantly, succeeded in bringing them back to Wrocław. More information can be found in the articles: Średniowieczny skarb wraca do Wrocławia – augustyński rękopis ponownie w zbiorach BUWr and Odnaleziony manuskrypt Cycerona wraca do Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej we Wrocławiu.

Dr Antoine Haaker comes from France. He has been working in the Manuscripts Department of the University Library for five yearst. A classical philologist by training, he studied Latin and Greek in France, Italy and the United States.

Many of this year’s laureates either studied or are currently studying at the University of Wrocław, including members of the School Climate Conference, which received the special award of MPWiK Wrocław.

Film director Agnieszka Zwiefka, whose documentary films have received awards at festivals in Poland and abroad, was also named one of Wrocław Creative Minds. She teaches documentary film directing in the journalism program at the University of Wrocław.

Employees and researchers of the University of Wrocław regularly receive distinctions in the “30 Creative Minds of Wrocław” competition, which honours the city’s most innovative people, projects, and initiatives. Tomasz Niedzielski (Faculty of Earth Sciences and Environmental Management, University of Wrocław) and Dr Paweł Gawrychowski (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Wrocław).

Previous editions recognised, among others, the Centre for Simple Polish founded by Tomasz Piekot, Marcin Poprawa, and Grzegorz Zarzeczny, as well as Professors Piotr Chruszczewski, Mateusz Strzelecki, and Marcin Wodziński, and our researchers, psychologist Anna Oleszkiewicz and pedagogue Kamila Kamińska.

A full list of laureates is available on the competition website.

More information on the website wroclaw.pl

Edit. kg

Translated by Dominika Łuczak (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.

Date of publication: 16.04.2026

Added by: MJ