Young scientists at the START
We know the winners of the 32nd competition in the START programme of the Foundation for Polish Science. Prestigious scholarships will be awarded to 100 outstanding people from Polish universities, including five of our young scientists: Elżbieta Górka, Michał Pieniak, Piotr Ostropolski-Nalewaja, Marta Kowal and Karolina Kocemba. Congratulations!
START scholarships recognise young scientists who, although just starting their research careers, can already demonstrate significant research achievements.
Michał Pieniak from the Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences was awarded a scholarship for his achievements in psychology: – “I treat the START Scholarship awarded to me as positive feedback on my scientific work to date, in which I verify the importance of the sense of smell and the perception of odours for human psychological functioning” – says Michał Pieniak. – The Foundation has recognised the scientific value of my research into the use of olfactory training (i.e. regular stimulation of the sense of smell with a set of several odours) in supporting children’s sensory sensitivity and cognitive abilities.
The direction of the young scientist’s further research is to verify whether people suffering from anxiety disorders are characterised by increased sensitivity to odours and to test whether olfactory training can be useful in alleviating symptoms of anxiety disorders. The supervisor of Michał Pieniak’s doctoral thesis is dr hab. Anna Oleszkiewicz, prof. UWr at the Institute of Psychology.
We wrote about the research of another distinguished young researcher from the same department and representing the same discipline, Marta Kowal, among others, here: https://uwr.edu.pl/en/love-the-subject-of-study-particularly-close-to-a-researchers-heart/ And this time her passion for love has been recognised.
For Karolina Kocemba, on the other hand, this award is not only a motivation for further work and development, but a reward for her scientific courage, and an encouragement to conduct unconventional and interdisciplinary research. – “In my scientific work, I focus on the study of law and legal institutions from a social science perspective” – says Karolina Kocemba. – My doctoral thesis focused on the impact of the organisation of the legal education space on the interactions that take place within it and on preparing future lawyers to participate in the public sphere.
Dr Kocemba’s doctoral thesis will soon be published in a slightly revised form as the book „Poczekalnie. Interakcje w przestrzeniach edukacji prawniczej a sfera publiczna”. – I am currently researching the dynamics of legal mobilisation in reproductive rights cases and this is what I will be working on in the near future – adds our researcher.
The START Programme of the Foundation for Polish Science is the oldest scholarship programme in Poland for the best young scientists representing all fields of science. Its aim is to support young scholars and encourage their further scientific development.
The winners of the START programme in the 2024 edition will receive an annual stipend of PLN 30,000. The 100 female and male researchers awarded this year were selected from a pool of 641 candidates. The total amount allocated by the FNP for scholarships in the 32nd competition in the START programme is PLN 3,056,000.
START scholarship recipients are selected through a multi-stage competition that assesses the quality of their academic achievements to date.
Since 2015, the Foundation for Polish Science in the START programme has also been awarding the prof. Adam Sobiczewski Prize. It can be awarded to a winner conducting research in mathematics, theoretical physics or astronomy. In addition, the main criterion for the award is the exceptionally high quality of the candidate’s scientific output. This year, it was awarded to Piotr Ostropolski-Nalewaja of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Wrocław.
Young researchers up to the age of 30 may apply for the scholarship. (or older, if they make use of the statutory extensions). Candidates’ achievements – documented by patents or publications in recognised Polish and foreign scientific periodicals – are assessed by scientists who are authorities in their fields.
Elżbieta Górka from the Faculty of Philology, has been awarded in the field of literary studies. She is a doctoral student at the Doctoral College of the Faculty of Letters preparing her thesis under the supervision of prof. Maria Chantry (IKSŚiO). She is a graduate of classical philology and psychology at the University of Wrocław. – “In my research work, I focus primarily on New Latin literature produced in Renaissance Italy. I am particularly interested in the history of Latin bucolics – in my dissertation I am researching the genological picture of a Latin eclogue collection by the Italian Carmelite, Baptista Mantuan (1447-1516)” – says Elzbieta Górka. – The Renaissance epic is an equally fascinating subject for me.
As part of a grant from the “Preludium-21” programme, she is researching the Christianisation processes of ancient epic, using the example of Baptist Mantuan’s “Lives of the Holy Virgins”(“Parthenicae”). – “I am also co-authoring a book on the epic on the life of St Anthony, ‘Antonias’ by Maffea Vegia (1407-1458), which will be published this year, as well as a translation and study of the Song of the Victory of Christ by Macaria Muzia (pre-1440-pre-1523)” – she adds.
She has published numerous translations and studies of Renaissance prose and poetic texts. She is collaborating in the C.A.L.M.A. project to complete a bibliography on Polish-Latin poets of the so-called “long Middle Ages”; she is also employed in the project “Chiny i ich sąsiedzi w dziele Historia Sinarum polskiego jezuity Tomasza Szpota Dunina (1644–1713)” of the „Nauka dla Społeczeństwa” programme. – “In the longer term, I would like to produce two comprehensive studies: on Italian bucolic works of the quattrocento period and on 15th-century Italian hagiographic epics. The scholarship is a great honour for me and an incentive to continue and intensify my research in the areas that interest me” – she adds.
The START scholarships have been awarded by the FNP since 1993. Up to and including 2024, the FNP has awarded 3,500 people and granted 4,136 scholarships (it was possible to receive the START scholarship twice between 2002 and 2015) in a total amount of over PLN 96.5 million.
The call for applications for the next competition will start this autumn.
More information about the competition: https://www.fnp.org.pl/konkurs-start-2024-rozstrzygniety/
Congratulations to all our distinguished young scientists!
Complied by Katarzyna Górowicz-Maćkiewicz
