Professor Adam Figiel: UPWr Doctoral School awaits

Our UPWr Doctoral School is a new, yet well–established form of higher education. It’s open to candidates who demonstrate a passion for science documented by completing foreign internships, participating in research projects, co–authoring patents or publishing articles in renowned international journals.

– Many students who graduate from our university can boast such achievements. However, not only UPWr graduates compete for placements at our school, but young scientists from other Polish universities and abroad do also – says Prof. Adam Figiel, one of the supervisors at the doctoral school. Currently, the proposed PhD subjects are carried out in three fields and seven scientific disciplines. One of them is agricultural sciences, which requires knowledge from many areas of science that combine elements such as genetic engineering, environmental engineering, system engineering and management engineering.

As prof. Figiel points out, thanks to the research carried out at Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, and the UPWr Doctoral School, the term "agricultural engineering" has acquired a much wider meaning. 

He explains that currently agricultural engineering doesn’t only relate to issues concerning the mechanization of agriculture, most often associated by laymen with a tractor pulling a plow or a combine harvester cutting grain.

– It is primarily a number of technological operations, from preparing seeds and field workstations to delivering food to the consumer's table. This is the interdisciplinary spectrum of work that has to be carried out by geneticists, soil scientists, growers, phytopathologists and logisticians, as well as chemists, physicists, biotechnologists and experts specializing in the discipline of food and nutrition technology, for the quality of products supplied to the market to be as good as it is – says Prof. Adam Figiel.

And he reminds that operators of modern cultivation machines are no longer simple farmers, instead they’re high–class specialists who use IT tools which work with satellite systems. These systems are improved by geodesists who, when mapping the area, no longer use an optical level, but data recorded by artificial satellites.

– This is an almost unimaginable technological leap, which shows the interdisciplinary nature of science and its practical application in a unique way. The expansion into space, provided by precision agriculture which improves plant cultivation, is followed by the possibility to delve deeper into researching food, by using electron microscopes and X–ray microtomography to study its quality. This can also be achieved by modern chromatographic methods, which are used, in food and nutrition technology, among others – explains Prof. Adam Figiel, immediately adding that the increase in food quality is a result of innovative process technologies supported by mathematical modeling and better care for the health and welfare of animals.

As Professor Figiel indicates, the UPWr Doctoral School offers its students the opportunity to combine scientific work with empathy within the framework of livestock production, previously associated with soulless methods aimed primarily at increasing efficiency and profitability. Progress in the field of biological sciences, zootechnics and veterinary medicine, which uses the most modern diagnostic and medical devices and methods available, allows to effectively counteract the existing health problems of livestock and domestic animals. This, in turn, satisfies the positive relationship between humans and animals.

– From a scientific, but also a purely human perspective, I can only emphasize that such a positive relationship can only be strengthened in an environment properly designed by environmental engineering enthusiasts, who care for ecological balance in an increasingly urbanized world – smiles Prof. Adam Figiel, who makes no secret that the UPWr Doctoral School not only gives a chance to young scientists to promote themselves and invest in their personal development, but also has an important role in the development of agricultural sciences, which are increasingly important in scientific progress.

As one of the doctoral school’s supervisors points out, there are many examples of agriculture benefiting from this development, especially the food industry, which more and more willingly cooperates with specialists from the agriculture and horticulture field. The food and nutrition technology industry also benefits from the development, especially from students which the doctoral school additionally prepares to solve problems of the modern world.

– Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences is predestined to both multiply and  take advantage of the dynamic technical and technological progress. We participate in many national and international projects, working on recipes for nutraceuticals that will be effective enough to fulfill Hippocrates' wish "Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food". This is what we teach in our doctoral school, handing over our future into the hands of young scientists – smiles Prof. Adam Figiel, to whom doctoral students submit their dissertation subjects. Currently, the professor is supervising a dissertation on: “The effect of drying parameters on the quality of functional food components”.

However, he points out that there are more dissertation topics about functional food underway. These are: “Ingredients of food supplements based on flavonoid compounds obtained by biotransformation”, “Development of fruit and vegetable powders quality by selected drying technologies in terms of thermolability of bioactive compounds and formation of Maillard reaction and caramelisation products”, “Change in the chemical profile during the production and processing of black garlic”, “Forgotten oil plants – composition analysis and biological properties”, “Novel carrot snacks with desired health benefits”, “Technological conditions in shaping the quality of special malts from legumes and the potential of their use in the food industry” “Valorization of brewers spent grain as a functional food ingredient”.

In the near future, he is planning to supervise the following PhD thesis on mushrooms: “Mushrooms growing in Poland as an addition to dietary supplements”.

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