On 13 March the Jagiellonian University hosted a lecture by Professor Richard Frąckowiak – an eminent neurologist and neuroscientist, distinguished expert in research management, who shared his knowledge and experience with JU staff and students in the lecture "The role of postgraduate research institutes in creating a modern, internationally competitive, research intensive university".
The meeting was opened by the rector of the Jagiellonian Unviersity Prof. Wojciech Nowak. In his address, he stressed that the JU academic community is especially interested with issues related to large research centres functioning within the framework of academic institutions. Then Prof. Kazimierz Strzałka, Director of the Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology, with which Prof. Frąckowiak has been collaborating for two years, introduced the speaker to the audience, emphasising his extensive experience in the field of research management.
Prof. Richard Frąckowiak is a scientist of Polish descent, who was born and educated in the UK, a professor emeritus at University College London (UCL). As a pioneer of human brain imaging, he developed and applied methods of investigating human brain structure and function relationships in health and disease. His scientific output over 36 years comprises 477 peer-reviewed publications, including the book “Human Brain Function”, which has appeared in two editions. He is very highly cited with an h-index of 166, with over 90,000 citations at a rate of more than 190 per paper on average.
Prof. Frąckowiak was the head of a number of research units, including the Department of Cognitive Studies (DEC) at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris and the Institute of Neurology at UCL. In 2003-2009 he was the Vice-Provost of UCL. In 2009, he was appointed Chief of clinical neurology and a year later created and headed the Department of Clinical Neurosciences (DNC) at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV). As one of the co-directors of the European Union’s “Human Brain Project”, he was responsible for medical informatics until retirement age.
