Department of Telecommunications and Teleinformatics Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science

The President of the Republic of Poland conferred on Dr Eng Monika Kwoka the title of professor of engineering sciences, in the discipline of automation, electronics, electrotechnology and space technologies, regarding the decision of 13.12.2023. Congratulations and we wish Prof. Kwoka further successful scientific work!

Prof. Monika Kwoka is a specialist in solid-state electronics, with particular emphasis on nanotechnology of materials for electronics, which is of key importance for the further development of, among other things, photovoltaics, and gas sensing.  The latter are areas with a significant impact on the protection of the environment and significance for medical applications regarding the analysis of the chemical composition of exhaust gases allowing the possibility of non-invasive cancer diagnosis.

Prof. Monika Kwoka began her studies at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Silesian University of Technology in 1998 and in 2003 defended her master’s thesis entitled "Photoemission studies of the surface chemistry and electronic properties of L-CVD SnO2 thin films", carried out under the supervision of Prof. Jacek Szuber.

She was a scholarship holder of the European Centre of Excellence in Physics and Technology of Interfaces and Sensors (CESIS) (G6MA-CT-2002-04042) at the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science of the Silesian University of Technology (major: Electronics) and completed her doctoral thesis entitled "Studies of surface properties of L-CVD SnO2 thin films" under prof. Szuber supervision. She obtained the degree of Doctor of Physical Sciences in a Nanotechnology specialisation in 2007. Her postdoctoral degree in technical sciences, discipline of electronics, was conferred on her by the Council of the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science of the Silesian University of Technology on 29 September 2015. Subsequently, she was employed as an assistant professor with habilitation at the Institute of Electronics of the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science of the Silesian University of Technology.

Prof. Monika Kwoka was honoured with a 3-year Scholarship of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for an Outstanding Young Scientist, as well as an Individual 1^st Grade Prize of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for scientific achievements that were the basis of her habilitation application (2016). In addition, she received the 1^st Prize in the National J. Groszkowski Competition of the Polish Vacuum Society for the best master's thesis and doctoral thesis, as well as 14 awards of the Rector of the Silesian University of Technology.

Prof. Monika Kwoka has completed several internships in foreign research centres, including 4 at the University of L'Aquila (Italy), a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tübingen (Germany), 2 at universities in China (Chongqing Jiaotong University and Xi'an Jiaotong University), and one in Annealsys company, Montpellier (France).

Prof. Monika Kwoka has been cooperating for many years with centres from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, France and India, which has resulted, among others, in a series of several dozen joint scientific publications in journals from the JCR database. Moreover, she actively participates as an expert and reviewer in many programmes, journals and conferences, both Polish and European. She has been involved in several research projects of the European Commission, (e.g. GOSPEL Network, EuNetAir Network and Clear-Up), and national projects, including those of the Ministry of Development, the National Science Centre, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. These projects addressed advanced research questions with important practical aspects. She was also an auditor in the Innovator of Silesia competition, which fulfils the mission of supporting, developing, and promoting the most valuable technologies in the region.

She has recently established international collaborations with the University of Dresden, India and a company in Montpellier and is active in the International Society of Female Professional (ISFP) empowering women in various fields of life.

She served twice as Vice President of the Academy of Young Scientists of the Polish Academy of Sciences, working with the Global Young Academy and Die Junge Akademie. She was also a member of the Commission of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the Dissemination of Science (2016-2022). She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish Society for Sensor Technology and the Board of Directors of the Polish Vacuum Society (Chair of the Surface Science Section 2016-2023), currently President-elect of the PTP, and in the International Vacuum Society IUVSTA she serves as Vice-Chair of the section "Electronics materials". She is also the Director of a global scientific conference, the International Workshop on Semiconductor Gas Sensors. 

In years 2016-2019, she was the Vice-Dean for Science and International Cooperation and in 2019-2020 the Vice-Dean for Cooperation with the Social and Economic Environment at the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice.

From 2019 to the present, she is the Chairman of the Council of the Discipline of Automation, Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Space Technologies of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice and a member of the Committee on Electronics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.