On 21 September (Tuesday), a press briefing combined with the signing of an agreement with the Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (WFOŚiGW) in Katowice took place on the promenade in front of the Rectorate of the University of Silesia in Katowice. The agreement concerned a fund in the amount of PLN 254,400 for the purchase of educational equipment for the Overhead Mobile Atmosphere Control Laboratory.
The meeting featured: Prof. Ryszard Koziołek, the Rector of the University of Silesia; Tomasz Bednarek, the Board Chair of the Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management; and Mariola Jabłońska, PhD, DSc, Associate Professor, the Head of the University Laboratories for Atmosphere Control (ULAC).
The Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management has been funding the University’s purchase of educational equipment for several years. It is the fifth consecutive funding for developing the University’s educational potential in the field of research on and protection of clean air. Thanks to the fund, we managed to obtain over 20 high-tier research equipment.
The fund enables the education of students regarding the analysis of air pollution and atmospheric protection through the use of the most modern ways for measurement and research regarding climate change. The equipment allowed for educating several dozens of students, writing a few BA and MA theses, as well as finishing some PhD theses in the nearest future.
Thanks to the equipment purchased from the subsidy, it was possible to measure the particle and gas pollution concentration at various heights, which enables conducting observations of the dynamics of the pollution spread over the GZM Metropolis. In total, several thousands of measurements of various parameters have been done.
Establishing the first in Europe overhead mobile laboratory placed at the basket of the hot air balloon allowed the University of Silesia to join the ACTRIS consortium, which was signed on the list of strategic research infrastructures located within the Polish Roadmap for Research Infrastructures in 2020.
The research on and education in the field of air and dependent ecosystems are consistent with strategic degree programmes such as Biology, Environmental Protection, and Earth Sciences. The research is carried out by the University’s students and PhD students. We have also established cooperation with leading centres in Poland: the University of Warsaw, the University of Wrocław, the University of Life Sciences in Poznań, the Institute of Environmental Engineering of Polish Academy of Sciences in Zabrze, and the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management.
Another funding for the ULAC laboratories will increase the research and educational capabilities of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. These actions are consistent with the University’s and Silesian Voivodeship strategy, which aims at improving the air quality.
