We, the founders of the Polonium Foundation, spent past few years organising the Science: Polish Perspectives (SPP) Conference: an annual popular-science event where outstanding young Polish students and scientists showcase their research. The enormous potential of the community that has grown around those meetings is evident. Hence in 2016 we've established the Polonium Foundation to take the idea of connecting Polish researchers diaspora to the next level.
We are connecting Polish researchers of all disciplines, working in academia and industry, all around the world. We are creating a community that fosters collaboration, exchange of ideas, sharing of knowledge. We believe that by doing so, we can turn Poland’s brain drain into brain circulation.
Why Polonium?
Polonium (Po) is a chemical element discovered by Maria Skłodowska-Curie in Paris, and named after her homeland: Poland. Polonium reminds us about what unites us all
- the passion for science and a feeling of national identity. Maria's biography tells a remarkably inspiring story of a young ambitious Polish expat conducting research abroad. It resembles life stories of many of the members of our community. To a certain degree of course - there aren’t too many Nobel Prize winners around - at least not yet!