Paweł Łukasz Sajkiewicz, Professor

My scientific path began with the research of fundamental issues on the border of materials science and polymer physics. My PhD dealt with the area of crystallization and melting of long polymer molecules under the influence of orienting fields. Then, I went deeper and deeper into the sea of basic problems of phase transitions in polymers. The experimental reality has provided me with more or less clear information on the physical phenomena and those information I tried to face with some models. Sometimes working well, sometimes not. One day I felt that I had accumulated a relatively large amount of fundamental knowledge, and it is high time to move on to more applied research that may be of use to society. Considering the increasing health problems of an aging population on the one hand and the rapidly developing field of tissue engineering as a part of regenerative medicine with extremely high potential and broad perspectives, my natural decision was transferring further activities to the field of tissue engineering defined as an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of materials science and life sciences towards the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain or improve biological tissue, function or the entire organ. My idea was supported by the new location of our Institute from 2009, which is now surrounded by other institutes of Polish Academy of Sciences with biological profiles, being natural partners for our cooperation. Additionally, I was inspired to make this shift by my friend and scientific partner, prof. Tomasz A. Kowalewski, who was a pioneer in Poland of  electrospinning as a technique of formation of nanofibrous scaffolds. Bringing my ideas into action I started to build the strong team with interdisciplinary profile as well as to increase of equipment facilities. The change of the activity field forced me to broaden my knowledge, mostly toward biology of cells and the mechanisms of their interactions with materials. It was natural come back to my old fascinations with biology, realizing many years ago during high school education and  during further university education at the Technological University combined with supplementary classes at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW). Finally, the dreams came true. Me and my great team are very excited to be able to apply our knowledge to new developments in the field of biodegradable polymers for regenerative medicine with a closer or longer perspective of alleviating human suffering. Finally, I feel that I arrived to the satisfaction and happiness from my professional activity realizing the words of my great spiritual master, Mahatma Gandhi, who said: “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

Education and professional experience

Education

M.Sc. (Materials Science), Warsaw University of Technology, Materials Science Department, Warsaw, Poland, 1982

Ph.D. (Materials Science), Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Warsaw, Poland, 1989

Post doc at University of Tennessee, Materials Science and Engineering Dept., Knoxville (USA), Postdoctoral Research Associate, 1993-1994,

D.Sci. (habilitation in Materials Science, Polymer Physics), Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Warsaw, Poland, 2004

Professional experience

• Warsaw University of Technology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Fellow, 1982-1984
• Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences (IPPT PAN), Laboratory of Polymer Physics, PhD study, 1984-1988
• IPPT PAN, Laboratory of Polymer Physics, Research Fellow, 1988-1989
• IPPT PAN, Laboratory of Polymer Physics, senior researcher, 1989-2004
• University of Tennessee, Materials Science and Engineering Dept., Knoxville (USA), Postdoctoral Research Associate, 1993-1994
• IPPT PAN, Laboratory of Polymer Physics, Assistant Professor, 2005-2010
• IPPT PAN, Laboratory of Polymer Physics, Associate Professor, Head, 2010-2016
• IPPT PAN, Head of the Laboratory of the Environmental Multifunctional Materials, 2011-2018,
• IPPT PAN, Independent Laboratory of Polymers and Biomaterials, Associate and Full Professor, Head, 2016-now

Research visits, cooperation (major)

Kyoto University, Dept. of Polymer Chemistry, Japan (common research, publications, visits), 1997-2006

Institute of Polymer Chemistry and Technology, CNR, Pozzuoli, Italy (Coordinator of the bilateral polish-italian cooperation between the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and PAS, (common research, publications, visits), 2004-2012

Inst. for Appl. Prob. of Mech. and Mathematics, Lwów, Ukraina (common research, visits), 2009-till date

Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), Sankt Gallen, Switzerland (common research, publications, visits), 2010-2016

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Prof's Eyal Zussman Group, Haifa, Israel (common publications, organization of joint conference, visits)

Mainz University, Chem. Dept., Mainz, Germany (3 months stays of two PhD students, common publications), 2018-2019

Domestic cooperation with various scientific units like AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow or Warsaw University of Technology

Supervisor of three defended and few ongoing PhD thesis

Arkadiusz Gradys, "Polymorphic transitions in low-molecular substances and polymers," PhD defense 2010

Dorota Kołbuk, "The effect of electrospinning conditions on the structure and properties of one- and two-component polymer nanofibers for use in tissue engineering", PhD defense 2013

Olga Urbanek, " Influence of voltage polarity in the electrospinning process on selected properties and modification of nanofiber surface and cellular response", PhD defense 2019

Consultant and Co-Supervisor of  the PhD thesis

Mohammad Saeid Enayati, University of Isfahan, Iran, "Fabrication, Characterization, and Mechanical Analysis of Polyvinyl Alcohol / Nano Hydroxyapatite BioComposite Electrospun Scaffolds Reinforced by Cellulose Nano Fibers for Bone Tissue Engineering", 2015-2016

Other major professional activity

The reviewer of scientific papers, research projects, PhD Thesis,  habilitations and professor's applications

Member of the Team of Experts of the National Science Center in the Science and Technology ST8 panel - Process and production engineering: product design, design and control of production processes, construction structures and processes, material engineering, energy systems, 2014-2018

The research tutor of the monthly summer student internships related to polymer scaffolds formation and the analysis of structure and properties of scaffolds, 2011- till date

The active participant in the Science Festivals, provider of lectures and laboratory classes - demonstrations for elementary, middle and high schools, 2010-till date.

The Organizer and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference "Nano-biomaterials, Modeling and Visualization in Biomechanics", 2012, IPPT PAN, Warsaw

The Coordinator and Lecturer at the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (CISM), Udine, Italy. „Electrospinning: Exploiting Electrohydrodynamics and Rheology for the Control of Nanofiber Structural and Physical Properties”, Septemper 1-5 th, 2014, Udine, Italy.

The Organizer and Chair of the Polish-Israeli Conference on Electrospinning and Tissue Engineering (PICETE), 2018, Warsaw, Poland

Lecturer for PhD students in the frame of Operational Program Knowledge, Education and Development co-financed by the European Social Fund, PAS, 2018-2020

Lecturer for PhD students in the Information and Biomedical Technologies Doctoral School, PAS, 2021-2022

The major awards

Awards from the IPPT PAN Director for the scientific activity/ publications, 1999, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2017-2020

Awards from the Director IPPT PAN for the organizational activity, 2014, 2015, 2017-2020

Awards from the Committee for the Achievement of Research Employees at IPPT PAN for scientific activity, in particular for publications in the highest-scored journals in the years, 2007-2009, 2010, 2013, 2017-2020

Award of the Department Head for the design and construction of the unique setup for investigations of kinetics of phase transformations in materials with preferred molecular orientation, 2013

Special award of the Scientific Secretary of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 1982

Research skills and interests

• phase transitions in polymers
• kinetics of non-isothermal and isothermal crystallization of polymers
• effect of orientation on polymer crystallization
• polymers and biopolymers for medicine
• electrospun nanofibers
• polymer scaffolds for tissue engineering/regenerative medicine
• polymer-cells interactions

Research projects (last few years)

The use of collagen for surface functionalization using chemical methods of polycaprolactone nanofibers formed by electrospinning technique, National Science Center  (NCN), Opus 12, project manager, 2017–22

Electrospinning of two-component nanofibers - synthetic polymer / biopolymer with the use of alternative, non-denaturing and non-cytotoxic solvents '', National Science Center  (NCN) OPUS 6, project manager, 2014-17 

CePT infrastructure maintenance, PANDA, coordinator / leader at the IPPT PAN,    NCBiR, 2016-21

CePT - Center for Preclinical Research and Technology, Structural Funds Project, NCBR, coordinator / leader at the IPPT PAN, NCBiR, POIG, 2009-15

Mathematical model of degradation of aliphatic polyesters as a tool for preclinical evaluation of biodegradable implants for tissue engineering ", National Science Center, investigator, 2011-15

Investigation of the effects of electrospinning conditions on the structure and selected properties of polymeric blended nanofibers for tissue engineering" (ESNANOTIS), SCIEX-NMS,

Scholarship funds, Host Institution: Eidgenossische Material Prufungsanstalt (EMPA), St. Gallen, Switzerland, coordinator from the polish side, 2010-11