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Professor Janusz Mroczka – AGH UST Doctor Honoris Causa

photos by Zbigniew Sulima

Professor Janusz Mroczka – AGH UST Doctor Honoris Causa

On December 8, 2021, Professor Janusz Mroczka, a prominent metrologist, creator of the Polish school of electrical and photonic metrology, corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the AGH UST. This is the highest commendation a university can confer upon exceptional individuals who distinguish themselves with remarkable academic achievement, exemplary morality, substantive input to the development of the staff members and organisational activity, who, by their work to improve the academic community, make a contribution to the university’s position on the map of scientific centres in Poland and abroad.

The motion for the conferral of DHC upon Professor Janusz Mroczka was submitted by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering. The academic achievement of Professor Mroczka was presented and evaluated by the following reviewers: Professor Piotr Kisała (Lublin University of Technology) and Professor Przemysław Wachulak (The Military University of Technology). On June 30, 2021, the AGH UST Senate had decided to confer the highest academic commendation upon Professor Janusz Mroczka in recognition of his exceptional scientific achievements in the field of metrology, especially in mathematical parameters of inverse problems in complex indirect measurements, which have become the platform for a long-term cooperation with AGH University of Science and Technology, promoting its scientific and teaching staff in the field, simultaneously making famous their substantive achievements in Poland and abroad.

‘Professor Janusz Mroczka is a well-known and respected figure around the world. It should be stressed that Professor Mroczka remains in constant contact with our university, and his work and methods had a significant influence on the development of research conducted at the AGH UST, especially at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering’, said Professor Jerzy Lis, the AGH UST Rector, in his opening speech.

During the presentation of justification for the motion to confer the title, Assoc. Professor Ryszard Sroka, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering, emphasised:
‘The conferral by the university senate of the title of Doctor Honoris Causa constitutes an act of accepting the scientist into this particular academic community. Such ceremonies have always been important celebratory events for the university’.

The laudation for Professor Mroczka was given by Professor Janusz Gajda, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering.

‘I have known Professor Janusz Mroczka for almost 30 years. In private relations with the Professor, it is his highest moral standards that draw the utmost attention. Honesty, responsibility, independence, freedom, invulnerability to pressure, unconditional harmony between word and action, these virtues have made him an ethical paragon in the academic community. Professor Mroczka has always tried to transplant these qualities into his colleagues and students’.

The speaker also highlighted the relationship between the Professor and the AGH UST that has been developing for more than 20 years:

‘During this period, he has been working in various ways towards the scientific development of the university, its promotion among the Polish scientific community, and the development of young scientists’.

In conclusion to his speech, Professor Gajda said:
‘Professor Janusz Mroczka boasts a remarkable academic achievement and has made an enormous contribution to science and to raising the next generation of scientists. With what he creates, he subscribes to the AGH University of Science and Technology motto: “Labore create, labori et scientiae servio”’.

After the ceremonious presentation of the diploma and the DHC insignia, the laureate himself took the floor. Unexpectedly, Professor Mroczka decided to change the subject of his lecture, which originally was to be about the Analysis outline of particle sizing in dispersive systems. However, he gave up mathematical equations and devoted his presentation to the Shades of success.

‘My lecture is for all those who had already achieved success, as well as those who had not yet been blessed with it, yet remain happy’, he said. ‘Often in life we pass unnoticed, ignored, forgotten, and we feel utterly valueless. This is not important because we will never lose our value (…). The price of our life is not the way we look, but what we know and what we have done for another human being’.

In conclusion to his lecture, Professor Janusz Mroczka thanked the AGH UST community for the kindness and for accepting him into its esteemed body.

During the ceremony, the following congratulatory letters were read:

  • On behalf of the Minister of Education and Science – Dr Anna Czajczyk, the Minister’s advisor,
  • On behalf of the Rector of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Professor Arkadiusz Wójs – Professor Andrzej Ożyhar, Vice-Rector for Science.

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