Year 2016 is over. For the University of Warsaw it was a special time due to the UW jubilee. We briefly remind you what happened at the UW.
Elections
On 20th April members of the Electoral College have reelected Professor Marcin Pałys the UW Rector for the second term in office (2016-2020). On 18th May four Vice-Rectors of the UW were elected: Professor Jolanta Choińska-Mika, Professor Anna Giza, Professor Maciej Duszczyk, Professor Andrzej Tarlecki.
Best scholars
In May 121 employees of the University of Warsaw, who contributed to the development of the UW faculties and units, received diplomas and increased salary. In November 3 academic teachers got a didactic award of the UW.
Supercomputers in Białołęka district
In June the new data center building of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM) was open. It is equipped with two supercomputers: Okeanos – made up of more than 1000 compute nodes, and Enigma – the biggest supercomputer for Big Data.
Three honored
In 2016 three scholars: an economist – Professor Elhanan Helpman, a lawyer – Professor Ewa Łętowska and a physicist – Professor Maciej Lewenstein were awarded the degree honoris causa of the University of Warsaw.
Grant leaders
Doctor Marcin Pilipczuk from the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics of the UW received a grant of the European Research Council. He will carry out research on algorithms. The goal of his project is to show various combinatorial properties of mathematical models and then use them to develop new efficient algorithms.
So far, the ERC awarded 23 Poles, 13 of them work at the University of Warsaw. In December the European Commission summed up results of the Horizon 2020 competitions. The UW received the most grants. In 24 projects the UW obtained EUR 9.3 million.
The University of Warsaw was awarded the Crystal Brussels Prize among universities – given by the National Contact Point for Research Programmes of the European Union. This prestigious prize is distributed to the most active and successful participants of European Union Framework Programmes.
“HR Excellence in Research” was given to the UW on account of the implementation of the principles underlying the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.
Scientific year
“Nature” – a weekly journal of science published the Nature Index 2016 Rising Stars – identyfing ascendant performers in the research world. The University of Warsaw was ranked among the world’s top 100 institutions. In the region of South East Europe the UW was ranked 3rd.
It has been a great year for the UW scientists. Researchers from the Astronomical Observatory of the UW cooperated in the discovery of gravitational waves and discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. UW archaeologists have excavated in Albania, Montenegro and Peru. The team of biophysicists have carried out research on mRNA which gives hope to people who suffer from cancer.
Fusion of institutes
From 1st September the UW has a new, 21st faculty. It was created from two units: the Institute of Journalism and the Institute of Information and Book Studies. The new unit provides education to 2 600 students. 95 academic teachers are employed there.
Inauguration
On 30th September in the Auditorium Maximum Prof. Marcin Pałys, Rector of the University of Warsaw began the new academic year. Almost 9.500 students started their education.
Unusual birthday
On 19th November the University of Warsaw celebrated its 200th anniversary of the UW foundation. Since one year the University of Warsaw has been organizing plenty of events related to its 200th birthday. Among the most spectacular were the UW Alumni World Reunion, academic meetings “Discover the UW”, Warsaw Boat Race, University’s Time Machine – the University 200 years ago and the cycle of Chopin concerts.