Zbigniew Kąkol

Professor Zbigniew Kąkol has been associated with the AGH UST since 1972, when he began his studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics and Electronics, where, in 1977, he received a master of science degree in the field of solid-state physics technology. Even before graduation (in his fourth year), in 1976, he was employed at the university. In 1985, he received a doctor’s degree in the field of physics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Jagiellonian University; in 1995, he obtained postdoctoral qualifications in the same field at the Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Technology of AGH UST. In 2002, he was conferred the title of professor in the field of physics. In the years 1976-1991, he worked at the Faculty of Metallurgy and subsequently at the Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science of the AGH UST. In the years 1988-1991, he also worked in the Department of Chemistry at Purdue University in the United States.

Professor Kąkol’s research interests encompass the magnetic properties of condensed matter and the physics of phase transitions. Initially, he focused on the relationship between rare-earth elements and transition metals, and subsequently on oxide-based materials, both magnetic and superconductive, and, in particular, on strongly correlated systems. At present, his research has been expanded to include topological insulators.

Professor Kąkol authored more than 100 papers, cited more than 1100 times. He teaches classes in: General Physics, Solid-state Physics, Methods for computerisation of measurements, Numerical analysis of experimental data, Physical properties of strongly correlated electron systems.

Professor Zbigniew Kąkol is a promotor, propagator, and populariser of open education and Open Educational Resources. He authored the first online textbook in Poland, e-physics. It contains computer simulations of physical phenomena, which he himself created, that were also published in computer magazines. He initiated and took an active part in the translation into Polish of an open physics textbook from Rice University in the United States.

In the years 1999-2008, he served as vice-dean, and subsequently dean of the Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science of AGH UST. Subsequently, in the years 2008-2016, he held the position of, firstly, vice-rector for education and then for science. Currently, he is a member of the University Council, the Committee for Science Evaluation, and the AGH UST Rector’s Committee for Evaluation. He is also a member of the Scientific Board of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Program Council of the AGH UST Centre of e-Learning, the Presidium of AGH UST Alumni Association, and the Central Board of the Polish Physical Society.