Professor Marcin Pałys is the Chair of Poland’s General Council of Science and Higher Education (2022-2025 term) and Vice-President of the European University Association, the collective voice of the universities of Europe, encompassing 900 members and affiliates from all countries the continent.
He was the Rector of the University of Warsaw from 2012 to 2020. During his term, the institution implemented the university development program, achieved the status of a research university, and established, in collaboration with five other European universities, the 4EU+ Alliance that was granted the status of a European University by the European Commission.
From 2014 to 2020, Professor Pałys served as a member of the Presidium of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland and the Chair of its Committee for Organization and Legislation.
In 2021, he was elected for a 4-year term as a member of the Governing Council of the Magna Charta Observatory, a global organization that speaks for universities as a whole and particularly for the signatories of the Magna Charta Universitatum on matters of fundamental values. Since 2024, he has also been serving as a member of the Steering Committee of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), a collective of organizations committed to reforming the methods and processes by which research, researchers, and research organizations are evaluated.
Professor Pałys holds a degree in chemistry and lectures at the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Chemistry.