University of Silesia in Katowice

Science – my passion.

When I think of that, my mind goes straight to people, places, connotations and reflections.

Let’s start with the last one.

Each person’s life is a series of certain events, emotions and decisions taken according to certain rules we set up based on our experiences gathered over the years. It is also constant searching, discovering, and finding answers to ever-emerging new questions. I believe that each person is one-of-a-kind, at least since one has received numerous talents and abilities to walk their own path of life in a unique way. Thus, in order to talk about passion, one should start to excavate these talents and acquire skills to use them so that they multiply all that is good in our world. It is not always simple, easy and pleasant. I have experienced that several times. Therefore, I often associate passion with hard work, resolve and satisfaction, thanks to which everything I do and live with makes sense. In my case, what has combined passion with science started in high school. I knew I wanted to continue to grow, and it was a natural decision to take up studies. The choice of computer science coincided with my interests in exact sciences. In the last year of my Master’s degree studies, I started working at the university, and I could share my knowledge with students. Changing the perspective was an interesting and satisfactory experience opening new possibilities and broadening scientific horizons. While working at the university, I met the future supervisor of my doctoral dissertation. For many years, this extraordinary man patiently showed me what scientific work is and how fascinating it can be. How regular data opens up completely new possibilities for us and creates new dimensions and knowledge representations. I mean, what are the decision rules? These are simple if-then sentences, e.g.

‘If temperature >38 and cough=dry then common cold=yes’.

Their showcase application example is various types of decision support systems used in medicine, as shown in the example, but also in any other area of ​​application, where the analysis of data sets in terms of discovering new knowledge, the properties of rules and their connections with other objects is an important issue. Applying it to practical examples from life is something that arouses curiosity and shows the richness of the reality surrounding us. After my PhD studies, I had an opportunity to work at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia) as a senior research scientist. The opportunity to cooperate with an international group of scientists allowed me to focus on scientific work and gain new experience. It was an important period in my adventure with science—which lasts until now—and a time of hard work that significantly broadened the scope of my scientific research. It also taught me the about the importance of good cooperation in a research team in which we strive to achieve a common goal together. Science gives tremendous possibilities to develop one’s interests and turn them into passions. However, had it not been for those important people I have met throughout this entire adventure, it would not be possible; eventually, it was them who made science my passion. And I am eternally grateful to all of these people for their support.