Scientific achievements
Prof. T. Kapitaniak from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is an outstanding specialist in applied mechanics and nonlinear dynamics. Since 1992, he has headed the Division of Dynamics. His scientific output includes over 350 articles (indexed by Clarivate Analytics), more than 100 plenary lectures and over 250 seminars worldwide.
His achievements include a significant contribution to research on chaos, synchronization and systems of coupled mechanical oscillators. By combining theoretical modeling with experimental research, he has contributed to the understanding of chimera states: the coexistence of synchronized and non-synchronized behavior in oscillator networks. His work provided some of the first experimental evidence of these phenomena in mechanical systems.
Research profile and research directions
His scientific interests include nonlinear dynamics, chaos, synchronization of mechanical systems, bifurcations, chimera phenomena, coupled oscillators and extreme events. His most important discoveries include non-feedback methods of chaos control, identification of new types of bifurcations, and research into the sources of randomness in mechanical systems.
He has developed research on the synchronization of pendula and oscillators, dynamics of multistable systems, ship dynamics, and the use of machine learning to predict nonlinear behaviour.
He has led or participated in projects concerned the prediction of extreme events, isolated states and rare hidden attractors in: NCN, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the State Committee for Scientific Research, The Royal Society, EPSRC, the British Council and DAAD.
Distinctions and recognition by the scientific community
He is a member of scientific bodies in Poland and Europe. In 2013, he became a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and in 2019, a full member. He has been a member of the Academia Europaea since 2021 and a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Arts since 2026. In 2025, he became a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association.
He was a member of the Council of the National Science Centre. He held visiting positions abroad: at the University of Leeds and the University of Maryland (Fulbright Fellow). He is a member of the editorial boards of the journals “Chaos” and “Europhysics Letters”, and Honorary Editor of the “International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos”.
He received honorary doctorates from Saratov State University in Russia and Lublin University of Technology. His global reputation is evident in his close collaboration with others on most of his 2020–2025 publications with international partners.