Prof. dr hab. Adriana Zaleska-Medynska, head of the Department of Environmental Technology and the Photocatalysis Team at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, director of the Fahrenheit Universities, received the 'Primum Cooperatio' statuette during this year's gala of the 'Pomeranian Employer of the Year' competition.

The Primum Cooperatio statuette is awarded to persons representing the Pomeranian academic environment, for outstanding scientific achievements combined with documented activity in the field of implementation of own scientific output in the economy.

During this year's Pomeranian Employers Gala, the award was presented to prof. dr hab. Adriana Zaleska- Medynska, head of the Department of Environmental Technology and the Photocatalysis Team at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk.

As prof. Edmund Wittbrodt, chairman of the Primum Cooperatio award chapter, said in his laudation, prof. Adriana Zaleska-Medynska was honoured for her contribution to the development of air purification systems. Her work has made it possible not only to learn and understand the processes involved, but also to develop equipment for this purpose from the design stage to the finished product.

- 'Above all, this is a great honour and privilege for me. I am extremely pleased that the work I have been doing for years has been noticed and appreciated by the jury,' - says prof. Adriana Zaleska-Medynska. - 'This is a motivation for me to continue working. I would like to emphasise that this is not only an appreciation of my work but of the entire team. All the research we have been conducting for years is related to the development of air purification systems using photocatalysis, so one could say that this is an award for many years of work.'

Prof. dr hab. Adriana Zaleska- Medynska held internships in leading research units, among others in the USA, Japan and Israel (California Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, Hokkaido University, Weizman Institute). She actively cooperated with the economic environment in the field of application of nanomaterials with bactericidal, fungicidal and photocatalytic properties.

With her outstanding scientific achievements, combined with documented activities in the field of implementation of her scientific achievements in the economy, she has proven that effective cooperation between the scientific and economic environment is possible and brings measurable benefits. She is a co-founder of a startup "NANOSci", which deals with the commercialisation of devices for air purification.

The researcher's interests include processes and devices for water, wastewater and air purification, nanomaterials, heterogenic photocatalysis and quantum dots. The scientist's solutions have been used in the commercialisation of research results in devices intended for air conditioning systems, for purification of air from pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2.