Sebastian Szybka
He specializes in Einstein's theory of gravity, with scientific interests in cosmology, black holes, and gravitational waves.
Michał Drahus
In 2009, Dr. Michał Drahus completed his PhD studies at the Max Planck Institute in Katlenburg-Lindau (now Göttingen), earning his doctorate at the Georg-August University of Göttingen. In the following years, he conducted research at California universities UCLA and Caltech.
He returned to the Jagiellonian University in 2014 as a fellow of the National Science Centre (NCN) FUGA program. Currently, he leads a research team formed under the NCN SONATA BIS grant.
In his research, he utilizes some of the world's best astronomical telescopes, such as the ground-based Keck, Gemini, and VLT telescopes. Additionally, together with his team, he runs his own research programs on the Hubble Space Telescope, being the only group in Poland to do so.
Jeffrey Hoffman
As a NASA astronaut (1978-1997), he flew on five space missions, becoming the first astronaut to log 1,000 hours aboard the space shuttle. Prof. Hoffman served as the Payload Commander for the STS-46 mission, which was the first flight of the U.S.-Italian Tethered Satellite System. He conducted four spacewalks, including NASA's first unplanned, emergency spacewalk (STS 51D; April 1985) and the initial repair/rescue mission for the Hubble Space Telescope (STS 61; December 1993). As the Astronaut Office representative for EVA (extravehicular activity), he helped develop and test advanced high-pressure spacesuit designs, as well as new tools and procedures needed for the assembly of the International Space Station.
After his astronaut career, Prof. Hoffman spent four years as NASA's representative in Europe, working at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. In August 2001, he joined the MIT faculty, where he teaches courses on space operations and space systems design. His main research interests focus on improving spacesuit technology and designing innovative space systems for human and robotic space exploration.
Prof. Hoffman is the Director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, responsible for space-related educational activities. He is also the Deputy Principal Investigator of the MOXIE experiment on NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance mission, which for the first time produced oxygen from extraterrestrial material—a critical step for the future of human space exploration. In 2007, Prof. Hoffman was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
