I am a physicist, graduated from Jagiellonian University (UJ) in 1990, where I also received my doctoral degree in May 1995. In October 1995 I started working at the Institute of Physics at the Jagiellonian University as an assistant.
In 2000 I went to Stockholm (Physical Chemistry Arrhenius Laboratory, Stockholm University, Sweden) where I was awarded a scholarship of Wenner-Gren Foundation and stayed for two years . From that moment began for me a period of intensive cooperation with foreign scientific partners.
In 2002, I returned to the Jagiellonian University, but one year later I went to the University of Darmstadt (Faculty of Physics, Technical University Darmstadt, Germany) securing a five-year research position. Due to my obligations related to employment at the Jagiellonian University after three years (in 2006) I returned to Poland. This time I remained in Krakow for three years getting in 2008 habilitation degree.
In 2009, I received and accepted an offer from the University of Bayreuth (Experimentalphysik II Bayreuth University, Germany), where I worked for five years until October 2014. At the same time from 1 September 2011 I began working at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (ending employment at the Jagiellonian University).
My research interests lie in the following fields:
- Theory of spin resonances and relaxation processes
- Dynamics of liquids and glass forming systems
- Spin relaxation processes in condensed matter and solids
- Dynamics of macromolecular systems (like proteins, polymers)
- Transport properties in liquid and solid electrolytes
- Relaxation processes in paramagnetic and superparamagnetic systems
- Contrast agents for medical imaging
My research is strongly related to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) relaxometry. The fundamental principles of NMR relaxometry are as follows: Energy levels of nuclei of non-zero spin placed in an external magnetic field are populated according to the Boltzmann distribution that leads to an effective magnetisation (polarisation) of the system. When one changes the external magnetic field, the energy levels re-populate to reach a new equilibrium state that implies a different magnetisation. This process is referred to as spin relaxation. The transitions between the nuclear energy levels are induced by stochastically fluctuating spin interactions determining their probability and hence the spin relaxation rate. The shape of the relaxation dispersion (relaxation rate versus the resonance frequency) reflects the mechanism of the molecular motion (not only its time scale) that causes the relaxation via the shape of the spectral density (Fourier transform of a correlation function) of the dynamical process mediating the spin interactions.
„Standard” NMR relaxation experiments are performed for a single magnetic field (resonance frequency). In my studies a very broad frequency range, covering five orders of magnitude: from a few kHz to 80 MHz (referring to 1H) is exploited. In consequence, motional processes occurring on very different time scales (from ms do ps) can be detected in a single experiment. The crucial point is, as already mentioned, that the unique advantage of NMR relaxometry is the possibility to reveal the mechanisms of dynamical processes (besides their characteristic time constants).