You graduated from a Secondary Technical School of Communication Technology and now you’re studying at the Faculty of Chemistry. What influenced your change of interest?

There were many such crucial moments which influenced my decision. The thing I remember most happened during my training as a firefighter when one of the lecturers remarked that the process of combustion is a process of oxidation but not every process of oxidation is a process of combustion. It was at that moment when I thought to myself that would like to go deeper into all this, to try to understand this chemistry. And it was then that I decided to seriously re-qualify and try my hand at chemistry but I took my degree in Environmental Protection because environmental and biological studies have always been close to me as well. 

You’re currently a first-year MA student. Has this met your expectations?

Yes, most definitely. I have shifted my interests slightly because now I study chemistry and this has influenced my decision over where I want to go with my education. But also because I have understood that chemistry is even closer to my heart, hence the choice. I am very happy with what I do. 

An academic internship in Japan must have been an interesting experience.

Yes, on the one hand it was an enormous experience and enormous stress but on the other – a huge chance for me. In fact I spent just under three months there – 84 days and apart from having learnt a great deal about chemistry and experiments, I also learnt that people can be really helpful. What you could see on every street corner in Japan, in every restaurant or café was people lending a hand. You cannot deny that in many cases we had trouble coping, like, for example with the Japanese language, and then people proved really helpful, explaining signs or inscriptions to us, and that came as a pleasant surprise.

How did it all come about?

During one of our lectures our professor asked those with the highest average to write him an email because he had a proposition. And that’s how it all happened. I wrote an email to the professor, asking to see him and he explained to me that if we are ambitious and if we really want to go to such a placement then we should try though it would be highly demanding. And thanks to the cooperation with the professor we managed to organise it all.

I gather it was some group then, is that right?

Yes, finally nine of us went.

Where to exactly?

Most of us i.e. seven people to Tsukuba, a specifically scientific city about 70 km from Tokyo, while two female friends were in the very centre, at the University of Tokyo.

What academic experience have you brought back?

Enormous. Enormous science. Most of all we learnt the appropriate approach in laboratory work. Because there’s no denying that here at university the amount of laboratory work is small. There we worked in a lab from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and this allowed us to acquire a real, appropriate and professional approach to laboratory work. Apart from that, we were also able to acquaint ourselves with a range of devices and a host of chemical processes which would take us a long time to get to know here. So we brought a great deal of experience back with us.  

Despite your short experience, can you boast any academic achievement, any publications?

At present, not yet but in a month I will be presenting my first academic poster at the interdisciplinary conference at the Gdańsk University of Technology.

What are the plans and ambitions after you graduate?

I definitely want to stay for doctoral degree studies at the Faculty of Chemistry. I have already made some preparations towards it and amongst others it includes gathering my academic achievement. Together with my promotor I am planning a large number of presentations, to have as many as I can under my belt so that I can qualify for doctoral studies. As we know, students of tertiary studies are already supposed to have had some achievement and have demonstrated their ‘own contribution’, so I am planning to stay on.  

So a future scientist then and at the same time a volunteer firefighter. Is this a family tradition?

I must admit that this is true. My grandfather worked for years at the District Headquarters of the State Fire Service in Gdańsk as a spokesman for the Commander. My grandmother was involved less in being a firefighter because she worked as Chief Accountant also at the Fire Service Headquarters. I remember when I was five or six years old and my grandfather took me to his workplace with him and I could sit behind the wheel of a fire engine. It must have been back then that I took the decision to become a firefighter.   

Did he let you turn the siren on?

Of course.

We have to add that it is the Volunteer Fire Service in Gdańsk - Sobieszewo. Any particularly memorable emergency?

Yes, it is one house fire in particular. This was one of my first emergencies and a very serious one at that because the entire house burnt down, unfortunately. It was then that I had the chance to find out for the first time what it’s like being a firefighter. What it’s like to feel the heat on your clothing. And this must have been the most memorable thing. There have been many equally tragic emergencies but this one I remember most as it was one of the first.

What do you do after such experiences, go fishing with your nearest and dearest to unwind?

If I’m able to find some time, sometimes even at night if night time is the only time to do some fishing. I like it very much although I don’t go anywhere far away, I stay close to my home because I am lucky to be living close to the sea and close to the Dead Vistula so I have plenty of areas to fish in. I try to make it part of my circadian rhythm.

With your nearest and dearest so with whom in particular?

Most often with my family – mum, dad or brother. But very often alongside my family, my friends come along who, I get the impression, are also my parents’ friends.

You cannot catch a marlin in these waters so what are your greatest fishing successes? 

I remember that maybe four years ago I caught two carp, and what is interesting − one after another, 15 minutes apart. One was 2.7 kg and the other 2.5.  

Congratulations and thank you for the interview.

Thank you very much.

Gdańsk, 11 February 2016

Interview: Dr Tadeusz Zaleski
Photography: Piotr Pędziszewski