Emilia Wdowiak and Piotr Arcab awarded SPIE Optics and Photonics scholarships
Emilia Wdowiak and Piotr Arcab - SPIE scholarship laureates
Two doctoral candidates from the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) - Emilia Wdowiak and Piotr Arcab - have been honoured with the 2025 Optics and Photonics Scholarships by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. The awards recognise their significant scientific contributions to the field and their exceptional potential for future advancements. They are Poland's only recipients of this prestigious scholarship in 2025.
Emilia Wdowiak
She specializes in quantitative phase imaging, combining optics, nanofabrication, and computational methods to advance high-precision quantitative phase microscopy techniques. With her strong engineering background, she develops two-photon polymerization techniques tailored for optical metrology applications. Her work focuses on fabricating three-dimensional calibration nanostructures to validate phase imaging methods, particularly lensless holographic microscopy. Driven to expand computational microscopy applications in biology and medicine, Wdowiak actively engages with the international photonics community through scientific conferences and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Piotr Arcab
He is a third-year PhD student at the Faculty of Mechatronics, has pursued lensless microscopy research since his master's studies. His current work concentrates on lensless digital holographic microscopy, emphasizing experimental imaging system design and advanced data processing algorithm development. Beyond lensless approaches, Arcab investigates other innovative microscopy techniques including Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy (FPM). His interdisciplinary expertise in optics and mechatronics enables him to develop cutting-edge imaging solutions for complex biological samples, working closely with biologists to translate these advancements into biomedical research applications.
Both researchers collaborate in the Quantitative Computational Imaging Lab (QCI Lab) under the direction of Prof. Maciej Trusiak and Piotr Zdańkowski, PhD, who serve as their primary and assistant PhD supervisors respectively.