Dr Maciej Lisicki from the UW Faculty of Physics has been given a Fulbright Senior Award. The decision was made by the Board of the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission. As part of the grant, the UW scientist will study fluid transport by so-called active surfaces.

The research activity of Dr Maciej Lisicki concentrates on fluid mechanics in a micro scale and biological fluid mechanics. The Fulbright grant will enable him to conduct a project “Active surfaces in complex and confined geometry”.

“The project combines various fields: biology, fluid mechanics and statistical physics. The aim of the project is to create a model of fluid transport by so-called active surfaces. They are common in nature – for example, cell bodies of ciliates, such as paramecium known from school biology lessons, are covered with tiny cilia that pump fluid along their bodies. The same mechanism is found in humans, for example in the cells of respiratory epithelium that lines the trachea and bronchi. They also have cilia and use them to transport mucus. From the physicists’ point of view, we would like to understand how the shape of such ciliated active surfaces affects the efficiency of transport,” Dr Maciej Lisicki from the Faculty of Physics explains.

Next year, Dr Lisicki will be a guest researcher at the Centre For Soft and Living Matter at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Pennsylvania. He will collaborate with a research team, headed by Prof. Arnold Mathijssen, who is engaged in studies on theoretical techniques across the disciplines of physics and biology. The main goal of the Mathijssen lab is to unravel the physics of pathogens and to design biomedical materials. For this purpose, the American scientists use various methods from microbiology, fluid mechanics, statistical physics, microscopy and information theory.

Dr Maciej Lisicki heads a research group, similar to the American one, at the University of Warsaw. More information on the team’s activities can be found on its website >>