Marek Sikorski was born in Miastko, Poland. He received his M.Sc. in Physics and his Ph.D. and D.Sc. in Chemistry from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland. Since 2012, he has been a Professor, and from 2005 until the end of 2020, he was the head of the Applied Photochemistry Laboratory. As of January 2021, he became the head of the Department of Spectroscopy and Magnetism.
Prof. Sikorski began his international collaboration in 1989, with his first visit to the Institute of Chemical Kinetics and Combustion in Novosibirsk, Russia. He worked under the guidance of Prof. N.M. Bazhin, and met some others professors as A.J. Burshtein, N. P. Gritsan, V. F. Plyusnin, V.I. Makarov, I.V. Khmelinskii which sparked his interest in international collaborations. He conducted several postdoctoral research visits, including to Prof. F. Wilkinson’s lab at Loughborough University in England, on a grant from the Royal Society of London and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1995-1996. He also visited Prof. R. P. Steer’s lab at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada in 1998, and Prof. J.K. Thomas’s laboratory at the University of Notre Dame in the USA in 1998-1999, on a Fulbright Fellowship. He has also visited several other institutions, including Universidade do Algarve, Portugal (Prof. I.V. Khmelinskii), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain (Prof. J.L. Bourdelande), Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (Prof. F.C. de Schryver), Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal (Prof. L.F.V. Ferreira), University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Czech Republic (Prof. R. Cibulka).
Prof. Sikorski has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, one book, and several book chapters, and has edited another book, which are reported in the publication section.
He has received a number of prestigious awards, including a Journal Grant for International Authors from The RSC twice, for a series of articles published in RSC journals, Fulbright Fellowship and a grant from the Royal Society of London and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He has served on the Scientific Panel for the Internet Photochemistry and Photobiology, when the site was promoting the use of the internet in research and education in the areas of Photochemistry and Photobiology. He is also a member of the European Photochemical Society and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal ISRN Physical Chemistry.
Prof. Sikorski's research interests focus on both pure photochemistry and its applications. He has a special commitment to the ongoing study of the photophysics and electronic structure of biologically important flavins, as well as other groups of compounds, including alloxazines, stilbazoles, thioketones, sparteine, and dihydropiridines. His interest also includes the study of hydrogen-bonded complexes of alloxazines capable of undergoing excited-state double proton-transfer (ESDPT) in the presence of acetic acid, with a current focus on ESDPT reaction studies, both in solution and in crystal solids. Among other subjects, he is interested in the use of iso- and alloxazines as efficient photosensitizers of singlet oxygen. The expertise of his group in pure photochemistry and photophysics enables them to efficiently study systems of practical importance, including beers, edible oils, olive oils, kraft pulps, and dental materials. The group is interested in the light resistance of such materials and the usage of modern spectral, photophysical, and statistical techniques, developing methods that allow one to certify the origin of the product and to monitor the effects of light on their value to consumers.