Accolade for environmental scientist

A Lancaster University environmental scientist has received a major accolade from the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Renata Romanowicz , who specializes in environmental modelling, was granted the habilitation by The Polish Academy of Sciences after being invited to take part in a rigorous procedure designed to test her academic credentials.

Dr Romanowicz, who first came to Lancaster University 15 years ago to do a post - doctoral research in ES, travelled to Warsaw University for a viva in front of around 30 specially selected academics from her field.

She also had to submit a thesis which included 12 of her own published papers and prove her ability to work independently without direction at the highest level of research.

Last week she heard her application had been successful.

The habilitation – which is awarded to just a handful of people every year – means that Dr Romanowicz is formally allowed to teach Phd students in Europe and can apply for full professorships. Moreover, there are very few women among them, especially in sciences.

She said: “This is the highest step I can take in my academic career and it was an honour to be invited. I am particularly pleased because it was something my father – who was also a scientist – wanted me to achieve.”

Dr Romanowicz’s work is helping to create reliable models to predict and measure a wide range of environmental problems such as air and water pollution and flooding.

·Dr Romanowicz has an MSc from Warsaw University of Technology and a PhD from the Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences.