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JU researcher becomes the youngest professor in Polish history

JU researcher becomes the youngest professor in Polish history

On 4 July 2022, following the decision of the President of Poland Andrzej Duda, Mateusz Hołda from the Jagiellonian University Medical College Faculty of Medicine became the first Polish researcher to earn the title of professor before turning 30. Previously, the youngest person to accomplish such a feat was Prof. Krzysztof Sośnica from the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences at 35.

‘It’s the moment every researcher is waiting for. Nine years of intense scientific work have resulted in achieving the title of professor of medicine. And so at 29 I have become the youngest Polish professor. The road to this success was paved with many more defeats than victories – it was hard, sometimes very hard, but it was worth it. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this success: there were many of you. I think that this is not the end of my scientific career, but only the beginning’, wrote Prof. Mateusz Hołda on his social media.

Despite his young age, the Faculty of Medicine researcher already has staggeringly impressive accomplishments under his belt. In 2017, he received his PhD while still being a fourth year student of medicine – also a first in the history of Poland. Additionally, he became the youngest ever researcher to qualify for the procedure of habilitation: the JU Medical Sciences Research Discipline Council awarded him for his overall scientific achievements as well as a series of articles entitled Atrial septal pouch – occurrence, imaging methods and clinical significance of the newly described anatomical structure.

The youngest Polish professor has been connected for many years to the JU MC Chair in Anatomy, where in 2013 he set up an international research team called HEART (short for Heart Embryology and Anatomy Research Team) in order to thoroughly investigate the cardiovascular system. He is the author of almost 100 papers published in leading scientific journals, such as Annals of Anatomy, International Journal of Cardiology, Europace, Journal of Anatomy, JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, Stroke, and JASE. In 2019, Prof. Mateusz Hołda was included on Forbes’s magazine 30 under 30 list. In the same year, the British think tank Emerging Europe named him the most influential European of the young generation.

Prof. Mateusz Hołda has received funding from numerous institutions, such as the Foundation for Polish Science, the National Science Centre and the Ministry of Education and Science. He has also received a plethora of grants and awards, and is a member of the Polish Cardiac Society, European Society of Cardiology, American Association of Anatomists and American Association of Clinical Anatomists.

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