On 4 March 2015 Prof. Zbigniew Błocki of the Jagiellonian University Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science was appointed new Director of the National Science Centre - a government agency, supervised by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, aimed to support basic research in Poland. He succeeded Prof. Andrzej Jajszczyk, who headed the centre during the last four years.

The Director's term is 4-years long, and one person is limited to serving no more than two terms in office. He or she is responsible for the financial management of the institution, the effective fulfillment of its tasks, as well as its external relations.

Prof. Zbigniew Błocki has been an academic staff member of the JU Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science since 1990. He received PhD degree in 1995. In 1999 he stayed at Indiana University in Bloomington and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, within the framework of the Fulbright scholarship. During the period 2001-2002 he spent one year at the Max Planck Institute in Bonn and three months at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. In 2006 and 2013, he was a visiting professor at Indiana University. He has also been frequently invited to give lectures at foreign academic centres (including Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, the University of Hong Kong, Peking University, Fudan University - Shanghai, Nagoya, Tel Aviv, Grenoble, the Indian Institute of Science – Bangalore, Uppsala, Tor Vergata – Rome, Vienna, Purdue University, the Australian National University - Canberra, Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu - Paris)

He is a member of several important scientific bodies, including the Main Board of the Polish Mathematical Society, the Scientific Councils of the Banach Center and the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as the Committee of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. At the Jagiellonian University he coordinates the International PhD Programme of the Foundation for Polish Science Geometry and Topology in Physical Models. During the years 2011-2012, he was the Head of JU the Institute of Mathematics and the Vice-Chair of the 6th European Congress of Mathematics (held in Kraków in 2012).

In 2007 Prof. Błocki received the Zaremba Award of the Polish Mathematical Society, whereas in 2008 he was granted the Prime Minister's Award for outstanding academic achievements. He is the author of several dozen research publications.