Academic promotions of UO researchers
48 University of Opole employees were thanked and congratulated
by the UO rectors in connection with their academic promotions.
The meeting, at which UO employees were honoured in connection with academic
promotions awarded, took place at the UO Senate Hall on February 2nd, 2023. The Rector of the University of Opole,
Professor Marek Masnyk, emphasised that it followed the tradition practised
before the pandemic. “I am glad that we are making up for the last difficult
years," said Prof. Masnyk. “We are also very pleased that the promotions
we are congratulating you on today took place in the last two years, as it was
a difficult period of preparation for the evaluation. We are aware that they
are the result of your very intensive work, but also of the intensive work of
the institutes, functioning within our twelve faculties, which strived for the
best possible evaluation results. We thank you and congratulate you”.
The Vice-Rector for Science, Prof. Jacek Lipok, added that the most important purpose of the meeting was to
express gratitude for the effort that went into obtaining the degrees and
titles. “Without your efforts, without what you have already achieved, but also
without what lies ahead of you, without a certain prospect, it would be
impossible to reach the stage of scientific development we are at now. Thank you very much for that," concluded
Prof. Lipok.
Among those receiving congratulations were 16 professors and 32 holders of
postdoctoral degrees.
“The fact that we have received a congratulatory letter today is certainly a distinction for which we are very grateful,” said Prof. Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel from the UO Institute of Linguistics. But essentially, this is just a transitional stage for us. Each of us is probably in the midst of the ongoing work. We are finishing projects that we have already started, we are thinking about new ones or we are already starting them.”
She also emphasised that having a scientific title is, on the one hand, an
ennoblement and, on the other, a commitment to further work. Both in terms of
self-improvement and passing on knowledge and experience to graduates, doctoral
students, research teams, and students.
Our goal is to make our students better than we are,' said Prof. Piechurska-Kuciel. Whenever my
student does something that I never dreamed of doing, or jumps over my
knowledge at the current level, I think that this is the purpose of my life.
That's why I do what I do.
Prof. Sabina Kauf, Director of the
Institute of Management and Quality Sciences and Head of the Chair of Marketing
Logistics at the Faculty of Economics, found the scientific promotion to be a
culmination of her achievements to date, but also a challenge.
“Having obtained the title of professor, there is not much more we can do in
scientific terms. Naturally, we should still develop, work and conduct
research. But it will be certainly a somewhat different sort of work, one where
the challenge is not another promotion. So I hope that it will be, a creative
activity, full of interesting experiences, in which great satisfaction will be
the reward," concluded Prof. Kauf.
Adam Drosik, Ph.D., D.Litt., Assoc.
Professor at the UO, Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and Social
Communication, also acknowledged that congratulations received on February 2nd
were a certain summing up of the work that resulted in obtaining his
postdoctoral degree. “But it is also a challenge. Receiving the congratulatory letter from the
rector in such a distinguished group was also an opportunity to see the next
step that is to be taken to achieve the title of full professor. So it was also an encouragement to continue
working hard and taking on further academic challenges," said Prof. Drosik.
When asked what advice he would give to those thinking of becoming professionally involved in the world of science or taking their first steps in it, Prof. Drosik, said: “You have to work. Choose a direction of interest, namely have a broad research idea in mind, and then take small steps in that direction, realising yourself in subsequent activities and research Quoting Prof. Lipok, who recently said that there is no teaching without science, I would also add that there is no science without teaching. Our self-realisation in the scientific space should, and it does, give us the opportunity to share the results of our research, insights and reflections with students. This is what the university is all about. Education must stem precisely from this research space.”