Professor Magdalena Fikus and Robert Firmhofer received the Prof. Maciej W. Grabski Award, which the Foundation for Polish Science grants for efforts to understand science in society, build trust in scientific knowledge, and popularize the influence of science and scientists on Poland’s development.

The FNP has presented the Prof. Maciej W. Grabski Award since 2016 to individuals whose activities also educate the public in distinguishing between “good” and “bad” science, namely between research based on sound methods accompanied by rational inference and studies that do not meet these criteria. The amount of the award from the year 2025 is PLN 20,000.

About the winners:

Professor Magdalena Fikus is an outstanding popularizer of science and one of the key people from the scientific community who created the important festive movement in Poland in the late twentieth century, which brought science out of laboratories and closer to the general public. Fikus was among those who initiated the Warsaw Science Festival – first held in 1997 – which remains an important event to this day. The initiative inspired followers throughout the country. In 2000, Fikus founded the Science Festival’s Science Café, which organizes periodic open meetings with scientists for non-specialist audiences.

Robert Firmhofer is one of the most recognizable organizers of recent educational initiatives based on science communication in Poland, which establish modern standards in the field. Co-creator of the project to build Poland’s first science center and leader of this process from the beginning, Firmhofer has led the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw since 2006, making it one of the largest science centers in Europe. The Copernicus Science Centre sets a benchmark for modern education. Encouraging self-reliance in the learning process, the Centre seeks to engage the public in thinking about the future together with scientists. The Centre builds a bridge between hard science – developed by scientists in the language of the scientific method – and various social groups. Firmhofer also co-creates and organizes the Science Picnic, Europe’s largest outdoor event dedicated to science communication.

The two people to personally grant the Prof. Maciej W. Grabski Award to Robert Firmhofer – as Professor Magdalena Fikus could receive it in person – on January 9, 2025, were Professor Maciej Żylicz, President of the Board of the FNP, and Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, Speaker of the Senate of the Republic of Poland and privately the daughter of the patron of the award. The awarding ceremony took place at the Batory Foundation headquarters during another debate in a series initiated by the FNP, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Batory Foundation, this time devoted to the much-needed changes for the development of science in Poland. The discussion focused on scientists’ communication with the public as an element of building public trust in science. One of the conclusions was that insufficient science communication precludes obtaining broad support for adequate science funding in Poland from the state budget.

 

 

In previous years, the FNP presented Prof. Maciej W. Grabski Award to:

• Ryszard Rakowski – initiator and co-founder of the Polish Children’s Fund;

• Prof. Łukasz Turski – physicist, science popularizer, initiator of and active participant in the Science Picnic, initiator and organizer of the Copernicus Science Centre;

• Rev. Prof. Michal Heller – scholar in the philosophy of nature, he inspired various academic centers to organize interdisciplinary meetings of scholars and their mutual understanding of natural, mathematical, philosophical, and theological sciences – including the Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Krakow, which Heller founded himself;

• Prof. Jan Madey – computer scientist involved in social activities related to supporting talented children and young people;

• Prof. Andrzej Białas – physicist as well as founder and editor-in-chief of the weekly PAUza Akademicka, which is a forum for the academic community to discuss science and its role in society;

• Magdalena Bajer – science journalist and columnist engaged in popularizing the position of science in society and explaining the social role of scientists, including issues relating to the condition of science, the specific nature of scientific work, research achievements, problems of the academic community, and the fate of the intelligentsia in Poland;

• Prof. Szymon Malinowski – atmospheric physicist, who for many years has promoted scientific knowledge on climate change. He co-founded the portal Nauka o Klimacie, whose authors cooperate with the most prominent Polish climate scientists to provide readers with basic knowledge about climate and global warming.

More information:

• About Prof. Maciej W. Grabski 

Watch also:

Video: Remembrance of Prof. Maciej W. Grabski