Ceremony of awarding honorary doctorate to Jerzy Zawistowski, professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver

On June 21, 2024, a ceremony was held in the auditorium of the Congress Center of the University of Agriculture in Krakow (46. 29 Listopada Avenue) to confer an honorary doctorate to Jerzy Zawistowski, a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Prof. Jerzy Zawistowski is a member of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He completed his master's degree in 1981 at the Faculty of Food Technology of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. He received his doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in 1988 from the Department of Food Science at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where he served as a professor from 1988 to 1998. For the next ten years, he served as vice president at Vancouver-based Forbes Medi-Tech Inc. with responsibility for the functional foods and nutraceuticals section. At the same time, as an assistant professor, he began a research and teaching collaboration at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences in the Department of Food, Nutrition and Health at the University of British Columbia, where he has worked ever since. In 2008, at his alma mater, Professor Jerzy Zawistowski was appointed director of the Master of Food Science program, which he initiated.
 

Cooperation with the Agricultural University of Cracow
Prof. Jerzy Zawistowski has been cooperating with the Agricultural University of Cracow for many years, particularly with the Department of Food Technology. This cooperation was initiated during the implementation of the project on the effect of black rice extract and plant sterols on the lipid metabolism of experimental animals (2003-2006). At the same time, with the participation of the University's employees, a muesli bar recipe was developed, taking into account the combination of the above-mentioned compounds. The health-promoting effects of the new product were verified in clinical trials with humans. The project was carried out in cooperation with ForbesMediTech, where Prof. Jerzy Zawistowski worked at the time. He promoted the Agricultural University at many international scientific conferences. He also participated in the preparation of a research project under the Opus competition (2015). For several years he has participated in the implementation of research on the health-promoting properties of young garlic plants. Prof. Jerzy Zawistowski has been giving lectures, exercises and seminars for graduate students at the Faculty of Food Technology in Cracow for many years, which have a very good reputation. Thanks to this cooperation, starting in 2017, the University of Agriculture has applied for and received funds under the Erasmus+ program for trips or visits by employees from friendly universities in each subsequent year. In addition, a number of employees of the Faculty of Food Technology have carried out scientific internships at the University of British Columbia, and the supervisor of these individuals has most often been Prof. Jerzy Zawistowski.

Prof. Jerzy Zawistowski's cooperation with the University of Agriculture in Cracow has been documented by many scientific publications of an experimental nature, chapters in academic textbooks and reports at international scientific conferences.

Photo by Piotr Dul