Prof. dr hab. Grażyna Antczak awarded the title of professor of exact and natural sciences in the field of physical sciences
We are very pleased to announce that by a decision of the President of the Republic of Poland dated 7 April 2026, prof. dr hab. Grażyna Antczak from the Institute of Experimental Physics was awarded the title of professor of exact and natural sciences in the field of physical sciences.
In 2002 at the University of Wrocław prof. dr hab. Grażyna Antczak defended her doctoral dissertation prepared under the supervision of Ryszard Błaszczyszyn. In the years 2002–2008 she completed a research internship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign within a team led by prof. Gert Ehrlich. During this time she conducted research on the mechanisms governing the movement of adatoms on metallic surfaces. The main technique used in this research was field ion microscopy.
In the year 2011 she obtained the degree of habilitated doctor of physical sciences. Together with Prof. Gert Ehrlich, she is the author of a monograph Surface Diffusion: Metals, Metal Atoms and Clusters published by Cambridge University Press (2010).
In the year 2008 she received the Alexander von Humboldt scholarship for experienced researchers that she pursued at the Leibniz Universität Hannover with prof. Karina Morgenstern’s team. As part of this project, she conducted research using scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). Her research focused on the mechanism of movement of large organic molecules – phthalocyanines – across metallic surfaces.
The next stage of her research focused on the correlation between the structural and electronic properties of organometallic layers on surfaces. For structural property studies, she uses both real-space techniques, such as scanning tunnelling microscopy and low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), as well as techniques that operate in the inverse space, including low-energy electron diffraction (LEED). She analyses electronic properties using the Anderson method and PEEM. As part of scientific collaboration she supports her research with calculations based on dense functional theory (DFT). Her work led to an understanding of the origin of the intermolecular interactions responsible for the formation of superstructures in both monomolecular and bimolecular layers formed on the surface.
Prof. Grażyna Antczak collaborates with scientists from renowned domestic and international centres, such as the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Graz University of Technology, Ruhr University Bochum, and Jerzy Haber Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
She is invited to deliver plenary and guest lectures at prestigious international conferences, such as the European Conference on Surface Science, Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Seminar, and International Field Emission Symposium. She also shares her discoveries during presentations at renowned universities in the United States and many European countries, contributing to the international recognition of the University of Wrocław.
Source: UWr, Photo: Paweł Piotrowski
