Lodz University of Technology is a good example of how to combine education with sport. - As a university, we are lucky to educate exceptional athletes. Let me remind you that a multiple medallist of the 800 m European and world championships "professor" Adam Kszczot is our graduate. For many years we have focused on the comprehensive development of students. Our second representative at the Tokyo Olympics is an athlete - Mateusz Rzeźniczak, a student of Occupational Safety Engineering. We will still keep our fingers crossed for both of them this Friday - explains the rector proudly.
The doctoral supervisor of Kajetan Duszyński - Dr hab. Anna Bujacz, professor at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences and her husband - Prof. Grzegorz Bujacz also from BiNoŻ. - My husband and I have been his faithful supporters since 2017, following and mentally supporting his sporting career while enabling him to pursue his scientific plans. I am proud that my PhD student has won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and I am convinced that similar successes await him in science.
It turns out that Kajetan Duszyński did his engineering thesis under the supervision of Prof. Grzegorz Bujacz, the husband of his present supervisor, who noticed his great interest in crystallography - Apart from Kajetan's scientific interests, the specificity of his work as a crystallographer, where periods of laboratory work alternate
with computer work, was very important. Kajetan is a very well organised person and he was able to efficiently take advantage of the time between training and competitions to work in the laboratory. He uses the data he collects to carry out crystallographic calculations on his laptop during breaks between trainings and competitions. - explains the supervisor of his doctoral dissertation "Structural studies of serum albumin of domesticated animals in complexes with ligands". - Kajetan had doubts whether he would be able to reconcile a world-class sports career with scientific work, but properly planned scientific research allowed him to fulfil his sports dreams as well as his ambitious scientific interests. - says Prof. Bujacz and adds - He is the type of scientist who is very intelligent, inquisitive and independent. He has already presented his scientific results at two crystallographic conferences, in Berlin and Wrocław. In May this year, he conducted diffraction measurements of protein crystals at the Synchrotron in Berlin - remotely, while at university. He has solved several serum albumin structures with ligands, including antibiotics and steroid hormones, and he is interested in the spatial structures of proteins in a broader aspect - the functioning of the body.
In 2022, Lodz University of Technology will be, together with the city of Łódź, the organizer of the European University Games, which will take place from 17 to 30 July. Over 5,000 people will come to Łódź, and students from at least 40 countries will compete for the medals. - It will be the largest academic sport event organized in Poland since the 2001 Winter Universiade in Zakopane - adds Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwik, who has been playing volleyball himself for many years in the staff team representing TUL.
Before leaving for Tokyo, Kajetan Duszyński said: Going to the Olympics is a dream that every young athlete has. It is always somewhere in the back of your head and you strive for it even subconsciously. Now not only his dream has come true, but also our dreams of Olympic gold.
You can find out how Kajetan combines his studies at TUL with sports passion in the video prepared as part of the series "Multiply the possibilities".