Category: PhD Students

Wiktor Kulesza, MSc

University Degree:

Faculty of Mechatronics at Warsaw University of Technology

Position at ICTER:

PhD student

Research Areas:

Imaging Systems

Wiktor Kulesza owns an MSc degree in Photonics Engineering from the Faculty of Mechatronics at Warsaw University of Technology. His Master’s thesis realized at the IDoc group focused on the fundus imaging system to aid small animal alignment in a preclinical optoretinographer prototype. He is currently a PhD student at ICTER.

Nelam Kumar, MS Pharm

University Degree:

MS Pharm

Position at ICTER:

PhD Student

Research Areas:

Protein purification, retinal guanylyl cyclases and their modulators

He has done a M.S. (Pharm.) in Biotechnology from National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), India. During his master’s thesis, he worked on host pathogen (M.tb) interactions. Later he has joined Dr. R. Ravishankar’s group in CSIR-CDRI, India where he was first introduced to structural biology. The structure biology completely turned his research fascination into passion. Now he is pursuing a PhD in ICTER. He will elucidate the structural complexity of retinal guanylyl cyclases and their modulators for better understanding of eye diseases during his doctoral studies.

Milena Gumkowska (Mućka), MSc Eng.

Position at ICTER:

PhD student

Research Areas:

Molecular Biology and Genetics

PhD student, performs research in the area of molecular biology and genetics.

Klaudia Nowacka-Pieszak, MEng

University Degree:

Master of Engineering, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Position at ICTER:

PhD student

Research Areas:

piNIRS, blood flow sensing, near-infrared spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, dynamic light scattering, optical singularities

E-mail: knowacka@ichf.edu.pl
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0002-7591-470X

Klaudia Nowacka is a PhD student at ICTER. She holds an MEng degree in Optical Engineering and Photonics from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, where her thesis on composite vortex pattern generation through spatial light modulators demonstrated her expertise in the field.

Klaudia joined the Singular Optics Group under the supervision of Prof. Jan Masajada, where she was able to advance her knowledge and skills in optical setup designing. Her work with Prof. Ireneusz Grulkowski during an internship at Nicolaus Copernicus University has further enhanced her proficiency in structured light and wavefront correction. This expertise is evident in her development of switchable optical vector beam microscopy for high-resolution biomedical imaging.

At ICTER, Klaudia is committed to improving OCT imaging resolution through dynamic light scatterers. She is also a member of the pi-NIRS project, aimed at understanding the optical and dynamical properties of the brain tissue and neurovascular coupling, under the supervision of Dr. Dawid Borycki.

In her spare time, Klaudia embraces a well-rounded lifestyle that encompasses her passions for knowledge, personal growth, and physical activity. She is an avid reader and enthusiast of psychology, neuroscience, and self-development. Her love for the outdoors is reflected in her enjoyment of hiking and traveling.

Piotr Rutkowski, MSc

University Degree:

MSc, University of Warsaw

Position at ICTER:

PhD student

Research Areas:

Machine Learning, artificial intelligence

E-mail: prutkowski@ichf.edu.pl
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0001-8009-0816

Piotr gained his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics degree in 2019 and his Master of Science degree in Mathematics in 2021 at the University of Warsaw.

In parallel, Piotr was involved in the commercial projects: on live videos with human faces (face recognition and facial emotion recognition) and on optimal learning strategies for users of certain learning apps.

Piotr is very interested in various branches of machine learning and in artificial intelligence, including their medical applications.

The most important educational/scientific achievement of Piotr is the Scholarship for outstanding achievements in science and sport for academic year 2020/21 funded by the Rector of University of Warsaw.

The major task of Piotr at the CGG is to develop and implement novel machine learning algorithms for analysis and visualization of high-dimensional single-cell multiomics data.

Karolina Saran, MSc Eng.

University Degree:

MSc degree; Bachelor of Engineering degree, Warsaw University of Technology

Position at ICTER:

PhD student

Research Areas:

Molecular Biology and Genetics

Description

She received her BEng degree in Biotechnology at Warsaw University of Technology. Her thesis focused on the analysis of selected strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in terms of their ability to natural competence. The Bachelor thesis was realized at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics Polish Academy of Sciences. At the International Centre for Translational Eye Research, she pursued her Master’s thesis focusing on maintaining stable cell lines for the production of modified rabies virus, and now is pursuing her PhD studies in the Ophthalmic Biology Group.

Piotr Węgrzyn, MSc

Position at ICTER:

PhD Student

Research Areas:

Full Field Fourier Domain OCT, Translational Research, Computational optics, Physical Optics,

E-mail: pwegrzyn@ichf.edu.pl
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0002-3269-6722

An inexhaustible generator of ideas, which he turns with determination into reality.  Piotr is currently a PhD student at the International Center for Translational Eye Research Center (ICTER) and the University of Warsaw. He is developing a new implementation of optical coherence tomography (OCT) using ultras fast cameras and various light modulation scenario. He graduated from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, where he prepared his Master’s thesis on medical optics in Turgut Durduran’s group at ICFO. In 2017 he graduated from the University of Warsaw with a bachelor degree in physics. 

During his studies, Piotr was involved in grants funded by the FNP, NCN and Horyzont2020 framework. Based on his scientific achievements, he received scholarships from the Rector of the University of Warsaw, the Minister of Science and Higher Education and the La Pedrera Foundation within the “ICFO Summer Fellowship”. He gained experience and knowledge about optics and photonics by participating in the most important international conferences and summer schools.