Prof. Dr habil. Jacek Lipok elected new rector of UO
Prof. Dr habil. Jacek Lipok won the support of 71 of the 100 electors of the UO. His counter-candidate, Prof. Dr habil. Arkadiusz Nowak, win the votes of 29 electors.
The election of the rector of the UO took place on 10 April 2024 in the Blue Hall of the Collegium Maius. The turnout rate during the vote was 100 per cent.
“I am aware of the great responsibility of the rector, I have been watching this for the past few years,' said the rector-elect shortly after being elected. “There is great potential in our university, which we proved during the last evaluation. We prove it every day by working in such a way that our achievements are more and more broadly appreciated, that we are an increasingly recognised university, that we are a European university. We hear that there is a glass ceiling above us. Not true, there is only the sky above us and let it be our point of reference.”
“I am delighted with this choice. Many thanks to Professor Nowak for taking part in the election. I consider Professor Lipok's mandate to be very strong. It is an expression of trust, but also of hope for the continuation of the policy of the current authorities of our university in the years 2024-2028," said Prof. Marek Masnyk, who led the University of Opole for the past eight years.
Prof. Masnyk gave the newly elected rector a pen. “I hope that you will use this pen to sign all the important and good decisions that will affect people's attitudes and the shape of the university," said the UO Rector. “I also hope that you will make wise and sensible personnel decisions. I must admit that in these eight years of leading the university I have not been happy with all my decisions, some personnel choices have not turned out to be the best or most fortunate. I trust that the pen and my experience, which I will pass on to you as a dowry, will allow you to make good decisions, and that you will surround yourself with people who will support you, help you, and decide on the further success of our university. I am leaving in your hands a university in an excellent period of development, as indicated by the results of evaluations and rankings. Someone has maliciously said that there is only a glass ceiling above us now, which cannot be broken through. No, it can be broken through. You can go even higher, and I wish you that with all my heart.
Prof. Dr habil. Arkadiusz Nowak thanked all his polemicists and supporters, as well as the supporters of Prof. Lipok, for their time during the campaign. “In thanking you for the votes you have cast for me, I would like to ask you to work for the programme presented by my counter-candidate, just as you would work for mine. They are, in fact, for the most part similar to each other. The differences that we demonstrated in the debate are not fundamental enough to make the division too deep and to make it impossible to work together, quite the contrary. Be proud of your choice, be a proud ship under full sail that will go on to break through that ceiling. Go to the stars, avoid the black holes.”
Prof. Dr habil. Jacek Lipok, a chemist and biotechnologist, is a graduate of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the Higher School of Education in Opole, from which he graduated in 1988 with a Master's degree in chemistry, specialising in agrobiochemistry. He obtained his doctoral degree in agronomy and organic chemistry in 1995 at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Agricultural Academy in Wrocław. The results of subsequent research on the transformations of organophosphorus xenobiotics in ecosystems, became the basis for his habilitation thesis and obtaining the degree of doctor habilitated in 2011 at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, University of Life Sciences in Wrocław. He was awarded the title of full professor in the discipline of chemical sciences in the field of natural sciences in 2020.
The scientific achievements of Prof. Jacek Lipok are related to studies in the field of exact and life sciences, at the borderline of chemical, pharmaceutical and biological sciences. Professor Lipok is an author and co-author of almost 90 publications, 5 granted patents and more than 180 conference presentations, including more than 30 scientific lectures delivered mostly by invitation.
During the past ten years, he managed or participated in the implementation of 7 scientific research projects funded by the National Science Centre (NCN) or the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) carried out at the Faculty of Chemistry of the UO. In 2021, he was awarded the prestigious Prof. Kazimierz Bartel Science Prize, which he received at the Science Celebration at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. On 20 March 2024, Prof. Jacek Lipok received the title of Professor Opoliensis from the Marshal of the Opole Voivodeship, Andrzej Bula.
He has successfully supervised five doctoral candidates and is currently the supervisor of three doctoral students. The supervisor of 71 experimental theses; 44 Master's theses and 27 Bachelor's/engineering theses - including 12 theses of Erasmus foreign students. He is an author and implementer of 14 interdisciplinary teaching courses, taught in chemistry, pharmacy, medical biotechnology and for students of the UO Doctoral School. He is also a co-founder of pharmaceutics, a new field of study conducted at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy of the UO.
Prof. Jacek Lipok has served as Vice-Chair of the General Assembly of FIT FORTHEM - the body that monitors the activities carried out in this multidisciplinary, structure-based project of the FORTHEM alliance, funded by the EU funds under Horizon 2020. He is currently leading the Research Transfer & Innovation mission in the next operational period (2023-2026) of the FORTHEM Alliance of European Universities.
Since 2012, he has been a member of the Presidium of the Executive Board of the Polish Chemical Society, where he is the supervisor of the PTChem Student Section and represents the Society in the work of Chemistry Europe - Wiley Online Library. He is also a member of the Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Natural Products Analysis Group, Committee of Analytical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences.