Assistant Professor Piotr Sułkowski and the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw are winners of the competition “Science Populariser 2016”.

The competition is dedicated to people and institutions involved in popularisation of science. 115 of them took part in this year’s 12th edition. Members of the jury selected 15 finalists in the first stage of the competition – top three in each of the competition categories: scientists, animators, teams, institutions and media.

Over 600 answers

Assistant Professor Piotr Sułkowski became the Science Populariser of the year. Scientist works at the Faculty of Physics of the UW and at the California Institute of Technology (USA). His research interests concern mathematical physics, in particular formal aspects of string theory and gauge theories. He runs a project called “Ask a Physicist” where he and other scientists answer questions sent by anybody who is interested in physics. This internet portal contains more than 600 answers about Physics. An important part of the “Ask a Physicist” is a cycle of lectures delivered by outstanding Physicians, such as Aleksander Wolszczan, Michał Heller and Roger Penrose. Lectures take place at the Faculty of Physics.

In 2013 Assistant Professor Piotr Sułkowski received a prestigious grant of the European Research Council. The project which the ERC has awarded – “Quantum fields and knot homologies” is devoted to the analysis of relations between physics and mathematics, and more precisely – between quantum field theory and string theory, and mathematical knot theory and random matrix theory.

For young and old people

In the category of institutions the jury of the competition has chosen the Faculty of Physics of the UW. The university entity is involved in organizing open classes – a comprehensive school outreach program including open lectures with spectacular experimental demonstrations, laboratory classes for pupils and dedicated lectures at schools. Besides this, the faculty is responsible for organizing a summer school of Physics, numerous programmes for pupils as well as for teachers like national seminar for teachers of Physics – a regular 40-hour course for school teachers acquainting them with the latest scientific research, modern teaching methods and school lab equipment.

The competition “Science Populariser” is organised by the Polish Press Agency in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.