Prof. Paweł Sobkowicz holds a PhD in theoretical physics. Between 1982 and 1993 he worked at the Institute of Physics, PAS. Since 1993 he has left the academic world and has been a member of management teams of several high-tech companies, both international and Polish. In 2012 he has joined the National Centre for Nuclear Research, with the task of managing the technology transfer processes and management of commercialization efforts, becoming in 2017, the Deputy Director for Innovation and Commercialization of the Institute. The experience gathered during the 20 years of commercial career is especially important in the context of efficient cooperation between the research communities and industry. Paweł Sobkowicz he has returned to active research, using tools of statistical physics to describe complex social phenomena. In recognition of this work he has obtained the habilitation (D. Sc.) degree in 2016. Author of over 60 papers, cited over 500 times. Since 2018 he holds the position of the Scientific Operations Director of the NOMATEN Centre of Excellence and the leader of the Industry Liaison Group.

THE SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH

The initial Research Group has been formed at the Phase 1 of the project. The research conducted during the period 2019 – 2020 of NOMATEN MAB Plus project was devoted to structural, topographical and compositional properties of functional materials i.e. ferritic-martensitic steels, metallic alloys, graphite, polymers, thin-film coatings) subjected to irradiation and high temperature conditions, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) techniques. Investigations were carried out using three systems, EVO (Carl Zeiss), Auriga CrossBeam Workstation (Carl Zeiss), and SU8230 (Hitachi). The systems are designed for advanced analytics using EDS (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry) integrated with EBSD (Electron Backscattered Diffraction) to get maximum information out of the sample (qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis, phase differentiation and combined EDS-EBSD measurements). The SEM-based measurements were a part of general studies of the abovementioned materials’ properties investigated by other methods such as XRD (X-ray diffraction), Raman spectroscopy, nanoindentation and TEM (transmission electron microscopy).