2020 Foundation for Polish Science Prizes awarded

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For the 29th time, the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) has awarded the Foundation for Polish Science Prizes, which enjoy the reputation of the most important scientific honours in Poland. The laureates are four distinguished scholars: Prof. Jacek Radwan, Prof. Ewa Górecka, Prof. Krzysztof M. Górski, Prof. Romuald Schild.

The FNP Prize is awarded for significant advancements and scientific discoveries which shift cognitive boundaries and open new perspectives for research, provide an exceptional contribution towards the advancement of the nation?s progress and culture, and assure Poland a significant position for undertaking the most ambitious challenges of the modern world. The amount of the prize is PLN 200,000.

Professor Jacek Radwan from the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań received the 2020 FNP Prize in the field of life and earth sciences for demonstrating the role of evolutionary mechanism for optimizing genetic variability in shaping resistance to pathogens and tolerating own antigens.

Professor Ewa Górecka from the University of Warsaw received the FNP Prize 2020 in the field of chemical sciences and materials technology for obtaining liquid crystal materials with a chiral structure made of non-chiral molecules.

Professor Krzysztof M. Górski from the University of Warsaw and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), received the 2020 FNP Prize in the field of mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences for the development and implementation of the methodology of analysis of the relic radiation maps, crucial for understanding the early stages of evolution of the universe.

Professor Romuald Schild from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw received the 2020 FNP Prize in the field of humanities and social sciences for explaining the climatic and environmental determinants of sociocultural processes during the Stone Age in North Africa and the Great European Plain.

The FNP Prize is an individual prize awarded by the FNP Council through a competition in four fields: life and earth sciences; chemical and material sciences; mathematical, physical and engineering sciences; and the humanities and social sciences. Candidates for this honour may be nominated by distinguished scientists personally invited by the Foundation?s Executive Board and Council. The FNP Council serves as the competition committee and selects the laureates on the basis of opinions from independent experts and reviewers?mainly from abroad?assessing the candidates? achievements.

The FNP Prize has been awarded since 1992. Including this year?s winners, there have been a total of 106 laureates, including such distinguished scholars as Timothy Snyder, Tomasz Dietl, Elżbieta Frąckowiak, Andrzej Jajszczyk, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, the late Karol Modzelewski, Karol Myśliwiec, Andrzej Paczkowski, Jadwiga Staniszkis, the late Jan Strelau, the late Jerzy Szacki, the late Andrzej Szczeklik, Piotr Sztompka, Andrzej Udalski, Anna Wierzbicka and Ewa Wipszycka.

The award ceremony will be held on line on 2 December 2020.

The members of the Foundation Council for the current term are professors:

  • Tomasz Guzik (Jagiellonian University Medical College) – chair of the Council
  • Grażyna Jurkowlaniec (Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw), vice chair of the Council
  • Piotr Garstecki (Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)
  • Jan Kotwica (Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Olsztyn)
  • Tomasz Łuczak (Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań)
  • Aleksandra Łuszczyńska (SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities)
  • Maria Nowakowska (Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University)

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