Theme: Taking it to the extreme!

Taking it to the extreme! - tak brzmi motyw przewodni pierwszej edycji TEDxUniversityofWarsaw2016. Jakie ekstremalne wielkości skrywa rzeczywistość widzialna? Co ekstremalnego może skrywać rzeczywstość niewidzialna? Jakie są granice rzeczy? Czego mogą nauczyć nas chwile przełomu, kryzysu, rewolucji? Przekonajcie się o czym będą mówić tegoroczni mówcy! Aby wziąć udział w wydarzeniu należy wypełnić krótki formularz na naszej stronie internetowej. Czekamy na zgłoszenia do 21 maja, będziemy na bieżąco informować Was o statusie aplikacji. Nie zwlekajcie, ilość miejsc jest ograniczona!

Biblioteka Uniwersytecka w Warszawie
ul. Dobra 56/66
Warsaw, Mazowieckie, 00-384
Poland

Adam Ziółkowski

Professor

His mother was a historian. And when it comes to him, when he was in primary and secondary school, he used to read every time larger and larger books on world history as his bedtime stories. Later on, he started studying history at the University of Warsaw, to which he remains steadfastly faithful. Beside his family (according to his wife “before the family”), the history and the University of Warsaw are the biggest parts of his life. He is a historian, with focus on Rome in particular, while his favourite specialization became the topography of the City in antiquity. However, he still reads with passion every printed historical text, which he finds, no matter what era or geographical location it refers to. In his free time, he reads J.R.R. Tolkien (50 years ago he almost knew the whole The Lord of the Rings by heart), Kipling (especially Kim, which takes him back to his youth in India), Buchan, Wodehouse and other British writers, and, of course, 'The Good Soldier Švejk'.

Andrzej Wysmołek

professor

Andrzej Wysmołek is an associate professor in the Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Warsaw. Optical properties of condensed matter are his main research interest. He is passionate about trying science by putting it into practice. If you check up on him while he is lecturing you may find him spinning on a special chair to demonstrate a moment of inertia or inhaling helium to demonstrate differences in the speed of sound. He has been conducting research on graphene since 2006.

Cleve Hicks

Professor

Dr. Cleve Hicks has spent his life circumventing the globe in search of his primate cousins. He spent 6 years in the Congo Basin slogging through swamps after western lowland gorillas and trekking across savannahs in pursuit of eastern chimpanzees. Now, when not in the forest, he teaches classes on nonhuman culture at The Faculty of Artes Liberales at the University of Warsaw, Poland and writes scientific papers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. In short he enjoys his life as a multi-cultured bipedal chimpanzee.

Jerzy Tyszkiewicz

Professor

Jerzy Tyszkiewicz is employed at the Institute of Informatics, Warsaw University. Depending on demands and situation, he is sometimes a mathematician, sometimes a computer scientist, and sometimes a digital humanist. He would describe his modus operandi as that of hunting-gatherer nomad. He believes that it would be boring to look at the world from just one beautiful spot and to profoundly understand only one thing.

Joanna Nowakowska

Student

Joanna is studying applied linguistics in the Institute of Specialist and Intercultural Communication at the University of Warsaw. Since the secondary school she has been in love with Russian language. She is definitely devoted to her job; she would even call herself a workaholic. On a daily basis she explores the secrets of translator’s work and she is involved in making the students’ world a better place. In her free time, between sleep and another conference, she indulges in reading Stephen King’s books. Recently she has also started spending her time on riding a scooter and she loves it.

Lucjan Piela

Professor

World is full of information. The hardware and software of processing this information is chemistry. However, the current chemistry does not tell anything about the quantitative processing of information as if it did not exist. Professor Piela is a quantum chemist from the University of Warsaw who emphasizes the big role of theoretical chemistry in a context of understanding the chemistry’s essence.

Marcin Matczak

Professor

Marcin Matczak is a passionate exponent of legal theory and the philosophy of law, in which subjects he lectures at Warsaw University. Published in both English and Polish, his academic work investigates how the nature of human language influences the interpretation of legal texts - a hot topic whenever controversial court judgements hit the news, and a fascinating one even when they don't. Marcin is deeply spiritual, insofar as he worships the spirit of the law. His life goal is to convert all legal practitioners, from lawyers to judges, to his belief that it is possible to be simultaneously faithful to the spirit and to the letter of the law.

Wojciech Grochala

Professor

Wojciech Grochala started doing chemistry in the primary school by using the self-prepared trinitrocelullose explosive to hit the wall of the Headmaster’s office with the cork stoppers. He ended up heading the research laboratory at the Center of New Technologies (CeNT) of the University of Warsaw, and teaching chemistry and materials science to the students. Science is definitely his best hobby. He also grows exotic plants, occassionally writes poetry and prose, and investigates his roots – he explored some branches of the genealogic tree down to the beginning of the 18th century. He also teaches the philosophy and basics of experimental sciences to students of humanities.

Żaneta Matuszek

Student

Żaneta Matuszek is a molecular biologist. Her scientific focus is RNA particles and their metabolism in eukaryotic cells. She spends most of her time around yeasts, but sometimes she happen to go out and meet people. Whenever she has an opportunity, she contribute to popularisation of science with great joy. She loves music, English sense of humour, and penguins. In her free time, while she is not travelling, she plays the piano, sing, and watch funny videos on the Internet.