Stanisław Lorenc graduated from the Wrocław University, where he obtained his master degree in geology. In 1973, he was awarded a doctoral degree, in 1980 he obtains habilitation (postdoctoral degree) and in 1994 he was promoted to full professor. In 1988 Stanisław Lorenc moves to Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and became a director of the Institute of Geology. He gained a global reputation as an explorer of the ocean floor. In the years 1996–2002 professor Lorenc was the vice-rector in the team of the then rector, prof. Stefan Jurga. In the years 2002–2008 he was the rector of the University of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Rector's term of Stanisław Lorenc covered a wide spectrum of scientific research, education, development of the scientific staff, international cooperation and cultural, sporting and social activities, student affairs and infrastructure. The most important at the university for prof. Stanisław Lorenc were people of academic and administrative staff, students and all those who collaborated with the university. Saying farewell during academic senate the rector, prof. Andrzej Lesicki, said: You were not only a great rector, an outstanding scholar, but also, and perhaps above all, a good, warm man. Professor Stanisław Lorenc died on January 19, 2020. He was 77 years old.

Professor Jacek Fisiak’s outstanding achievements are well known in the scholarly community in Poland and abroad. He was an excellent and widely recognizable scholar, an exceptional teacher and talent-detector, an ingenious science manager, and he was so likeable and cordial! Professor Jacek Fisiak directed the Institute of English at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań for 40 years. Thanks to his management, English studies in Poznań obtained a leading position among such institutions in Poland and in the world. Professor Fisiak also cared about other English departments in Poland. On the one hand, he supervised 61 (!) PhD students who continued their academic careers throughout Poland, on the other, he supported English studies as well as the humanities and research in general as Minister of National Education and member of numerous influential bodies. I am grateful to Professor Fisiak for his guidance in my academic work, starting with my M.A., through the doctoral and post-doctoral degrees and the professorial title, my function as his deputy director for 3 terms, up to the ‘take-over of the command’ of the Institute and the creation of the Faculty of English. His opus survives and will last.

The problem of gender imbalance in Polish science is a clear and widely documented fact confirmed by numerous scientific studies. The gender imbalance affects both women and men depending on scientific disciplines and the level of scientific careers. The sources of this situation, leading to morally unacceptable exclusion of certain demographic groups and the underutilisation of society's full intellectual potential, are both 1) cultural and social aspects and the associated prejudice and discrimination, and 2) institutional aspects, including, inter alia, low and unequal salaries and the widespread use of anachronistic models of assessing scientific excellence that exclude non-traditional career paths and ways of conducting scientific research. In order to broaden the public dialogue on the gender imbalance in science in Poland, on 10.02.2023, the Polish Young Academy of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), together with the National Science Centre, the Office of Science Promotion of the PolSCA PAS in Brussels and the Research Centre for Women's Participation in Public Space of the UAM in partnership with the L'Oreal Foundation, organised a conference entitled “Research excellence has no gender”. The event, attended by representatives and authorities of many organisations of the scientific community in Poland, inaugurated a long-term programme under the name “Research excellence has no gender”. The event aimed to draw attention to the existing disparities in science and the need to develop and introduce changes to reduce these disparities.