PROFIL PRACOWNIKA: Jarosław Grobelny

Prof. Jaroslaw Grobelny started his scientific work in 2001 at the Department of Chemical Technology and the Environment Protection, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Lodz (Poland). At the same year, he completed a one-month internship as a Guest Scientist in the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland). In 2003 he received a Ph.D. degree in Physics in the Department of Solid State Physics, University of Lodz (Poland) and continued his work as a scientist and academic teacher in the Faculty of Chemistry. After his Ph.D. he completed a 3-year internship in 2004-2007 as a Guest Scientist in Nanomechanical Properties Group, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland (USA) and a 1-month fellowship in 2008 at NIST Institute in Gaithersburg (USA). During the internship at NIST he was

a leader of a project titled: “Surface and Interfacial Nanomechanics” where he developed procedures related to the standards for the characteristics of nanomaterials.

After returning to Poland Jaroslaw Grobelny started a project titled “Synthesis and characterization of gold, silver and copper nanoparticles” financed by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research as the project leader. In 2010, he received D.Sc. title in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Lodz (Poland) in the field of materials engineering, specialization: nanotechnology, biomaterials engineering. The D.Sc. thesis title was: “Metrology at the nanoscale for biomedical applications and technologies”.

In 2010, Grobelny was employed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Technology and Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Lodz (Poland). Since 2010 till now, he is also Head of Department of Materials Technology and Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Lodz (Poland). In 2011-2014, he coordinates the work of Polish team members as a partner project leader in Seventh Framework Programme (FP7); FP7-NMP-2010-SMALL-4, Cooperation (NMP), Hymec FP7-NMP, Contract: 263073, titled: “Hybrid organic/inorganic memory elements for integration of electronic and photonic circuitry”. Since 2019 Jaroslaw Grobelny is a Professor in the field of natural sciences.

Prof. Grobelny was also involved in organizational activities at the University of Lodz and in 2012-2016 he was a Deputy Dean, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Lodz. In the years of 2014-2017 with the cooperation with Medical University of Lodz (Poland) as s consortium project partner he lead a project from the National Science Center (NCN), titled “Analysis of the antioxidant potential of proteins immobilized on nanoparticles. In vitro, in vivo studies” (UMO-2013/09/B/NZ7/01019) and in 2015-2018 he led a NCN project as a consortium project partner with the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (Poland) titled: “Regenerative activity of silver nanoparticles modified with tannins
in dermal uses” (UMO-2014/13/B/NZ5/01356).

The interdisciplinary education of Prof. Grobelny (PhD in physics, D.Sc. in materials engineering in the field of biomaterials) and the years of experience gained during scientific work at the Faculty of Chemistry as well as extensive experience in management and implementation of research projects clearly prove that he is a person with appropriate preparation for the implementation of this project.

The scientific activity of Prof. Grobelny is related to the work on the preparation, functionalization and characterization of hybrid functional materials including nanomaterials and the determination of their impact on toxicity, human health and the environment in order to develop safe and effective nano-based materials. Hybrid functional materials are the subject of currently realized research projects lead by Prof. Grobelny (listed above) and scientific publications (DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140545, 10.1016/j.tiv.2020.104931, 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122442, 10.1016/j.tiv.2020.104774, 10.2147/IJN.S252027, 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01115, 10.1016/j.taap.2017.10.014, 10.1016/j.tiv.2017.09.003) and those already submitted to the UE titled: ”Assessing and predicting the health and environmental risks of nanomaterials by means of advanced characterisation methodologies(EU-NANOMAT)”.Prof. Grobelny carry out advanced activities related to the synthesis of nanomaterials (DOI:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2019.01.037, 10.1007/s11051-017-3973-9, 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2015.04.04 ), characterization of materials - including nanomaterials in state and colloidal form (DOI: 10.1155/2013/313081, 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2013.04.022, 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2015.04.040, 10.1007/s11051-017-3973-9, 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2017.08.019), toxic effect of nanomaterials (DOI: 10.1002/slct.202100034, 10.1186/s13071-020-04453-z, 10.1016/j.tiv.2020.104931).

Apart from basic research, the scientific activity of Prof. Grobelny has a very strong application character, an example of which is patent application No. P.411215 from 2015 titled "Method of manufacturing bimetallic silver-copper nanoparticles modified with polyphenols and their use as antiviral preparation". In this area, a team lead by Prof. Grobelny carries out research projects (NCN (OPUS) “Functional nano-particles of noble metals as stimulators of the immune response in herpesvirus infection type 1 and 2 "(OPUS-2018/31/B/NZ6/02606) aimed at developing a formulation that can be used to treat the herpes simplex virus.

The preparation of nanoparticles inherently relates to the problem of the safety of using nanomaterials. Although, his problem is not so important in the laboratory scale but in many cases the production of nanomaterials in the world is estimated in tonnes. Exposure to the potentially adverse effects of nanomaterials starts at the stage of their production, then it may affect the consumer, and eventually may have an impact on the natural environment. The activity of Prof. Grobelny in this field of area is also significant. Prof. Grobelny is an expert – representative of Poland on behalf of the Bureau for Chemical Substances in the work of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) dealing with nanomaterials (OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials - WPMN).

Scientific and organizational activity of Prof. Grobelny was appreciated and awarded. Prof. Grobelny is Laureate of the Foundation for Polish Science, Homing program, edition (2007), and he received several awards and honors: Gold Medal - 2nd World Competition of Chemical Inventions - International Warsaw Inventions Show. (2013), Special Award in recognition of the novel idea presented by the invention "A method for obtaining photocatalytic nanocoatings on the textile materials surface" exhibited a "The 7^th International Warsaw Invention Show IWIS 2013" awarded by Korea Invention Academy (2013), Rector of the University of Lodz individual award for special achievements in the field of science (2015), Rector of the University of Lodz the second degree team award - for scientific achievements (2014, 2010), Rector of the University of Lodz the degree team award – for teaching and educational achievements (2012, 2003, 2018, 2020).