The European Research Council has announced the results of the ERC Starting Grants 2023 competition. The winners include two scientists working in Poland: Dr Eng. Maciej Trusiak from the Faculty of Mechatronics of the Warsaw University of Technology and Dr Łukasz Sterczewski from the Faculty of Electronics, Photonics and Microsystems of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. Their previous research work was financed by grants from the National Centre of Science (NCN).

Dr Maciej Trusiak specialises in optical nanoscopy. He is a five-time winner of NCN competitions: PRELUDIUM, PRELUDIUM BIS, SONATA and 2x OPUS. Thanks to the ERC grant he has just been awarded; he will carry out the project ‘Lensless label-free nanoscopy’ (NaNoLens) on how lensless holographic microscopy can be used more effectively. This is a technology that overcomes the limitations of optical nanoscopy in live cell imaging (requiring cell labelling and having a limited field of view), but the challenge remains that the imaging resolution is still too low. With the StG ERC grant, a team led by Prof. Trusiak will work on the possibility of increasing the imaging field with this technology using deep UV. Prof Trusiak has been awarded €1.5 million for the five-year ERC.

Dr Eng. Lukasz Sterczewski’s day-to-day work involves terahertz waves, which are one of the least studied parts of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. Thanks to the grant, the team led by Dr Sterczewski will carry out research on room-temperature terahertz spectrometers based on integrated optical frequency combs. The project envisages the creation of miniature devices that would enable the simple and efficient use of terahertz waves in many everyday situations. The budget for the TeraERC project is €1.5 million.

Adrian Andrzejewski