Slovak scholarship

– I had learnt about the scholarship from the university website and all the details were provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs. I won a competition that was conveyed to the Foundation of International Education - said Rafał.

The applications were evaluated according to scientific accomplishments: publications, participation in conferences, received scholarships, and the average grades from the previous academic year. Also taken into account were the opinions of scientific tutors and the applicants’ research interests.

– During the scholarship I will be conducting research into environmental mycology - said Rafał. – There will be a complete mycological analysis carried out: air, rocks and water from two Slovakian caves, to determine the microclimatic factors influencing the content of fungi in the caves. The fungi will not only be classified according to a standard microscopic method, but also molecular method – he added.

Rafał Ogórek has carried out similar research in Poland in Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia in Kletno, and in the drifts of the Riese complex. The research results have been published in Polish and foreign magazines, such as the International Journal of Speleology, the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, the Geomicrobiology Journal and the Polish Journal of Environmental Studies.

Three one-year scholarships were awarded, which constitute a significant distinction; it is worth noting that two of them were connected to the University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Wrocław. Martina Foldesiova, a doctoral student from the Faculty of Biochemistry and Biotechnology at Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, will come to Poland for a three-month internship. She will have a scientific and research internship at the Institute of Animal Breeding, which is run by Professor Andrzej Filistowicz.

Last year the scholarship was awarded to Paulina Panek, a doctoral student of the Faculty of Biology and Animal Science.

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