Prof dorota gryko

In 1994, Dorota Gryko obtained a master's degree from the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw. She continued her education at the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, where under the supervision of Prof. Janusz Jurczak defended her doctoral thesis in 1997.

 

Then she moved to the University  of North Carolina to join the laboratory of Prof. Jonathan Lindsey as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2000, she returned to the Institute of Organic Chemistry in Warsaw, where she obtained her habilitation in 2008. In 2010, she was awarded the title of Associate Professor of chemistry, and finally in 2015, as a full professor.

 

To address current sustainability issues of the chemical industry, the Gryko Lab is focussing on the development of alternative technologies to eliminate environmentally damaging chemicals and by-products. This can only be achieved by taking inspiration from the Nature as 'what works' is based on its 3.8 billion years of evolution. Nature constructs and decomposes complex molecules with the help of enzymes as catalysts and light as the ultimate energy source. However, despite fundamental benefits of enzymes, their industrial application can be limited by their availability, instability towards certain conditions, cost etc.

So far, the research group develops catalytic methods that mimic efficiency characteristic for enzymes by combining the robust nature of simple nature-derived catalysts with light as the source of energy.