About me...

I was born in Tarnowskie Gory, a beautiful 16th century town in southern Poland, in 1974. The town is famous of its historic silver mine which is now one of the major tourist attractions of the town (all silver is gone, sorry :-0). In the mine, there is about 2km long tourist route 40 meters underground and part of this route is covered by boats. You should definitely plan to see Tarnowskie Gory when you'll be visiting southern part of Poland (click here to see some old postcards picturing the town)!

When I was a 5th grade student, I began my adventure with field hockey. I joined a special class in my elementary school with significantly extended physical education hours. The class was coached by Stefan Karmelita and sponsored by KKS Slask Tarnowskie Gory, one of the major sports clubs in Tarnowskie Gory. Currently, the traditions of this club are continued by Osemka Tarnowskie Gory, where many of my friends from the childhood still practice and compete in the Polish field hockey league.

At about the same time I discovered another passion in my life - books. Apart from obligatory textbooks, I started reading many travel, historical, and adventure stories. Among my favorite authors were Alfred Szklarski, Henryk Sienkiewicz, and Karl May. These books have had a large impact on my curiosity of the world, and eagerness to travel and learn other cultures.

After being admitted to Building Technical Schools in Bytom, Poland, I became interested in civil engineering and mathematics. These interests were further nurtured by Marian Ostapczyk, the director of the school, and Madgalena Drozdz. They prepared a selected group of students for Civil Engineering Olympiads at the school, regional, and national levels (see Awards section). Also, Kazimierz Maruszczyk, my math teacher and currently the director of the school, was the person who showed the beauty of mathematics to me and invited me to my first scientific conference - the Symposium on the History of Mathematics in Rudy Raciborskie, Poland.

Following the advice from Wieslaw Rudolf, at that time the dean of the Civil Engineering Department at Warsaw University of Technology and one of the organizers of Civil Engineering Olympiads, I moved to Warsaw, Poland in 1994 to pursue my M.S. degree in Civil Engineering. During my five years as a civil engineering student, I further extended my civil engineering knowledge and skills and focused on modern technologies for computer aided design (CAD). I also started cooperating with CAD software vendors, including Bentley Systems Poland and Nemetschek Poland.

In Warsaw I met my wife Iwona, at that time a student of Warsaw University. We got married in Sandomierz, Poland in 2002.

In August 2000, I came to Fairfax, VA to pursue my Ph.D. study at George Mason University, following an invitation from Tomasz Arciszewski, a professor and currently the chair of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering Department. At GMU, I have also closely collaborated with Timothy Sauer, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, and Kenneth De Jong, a professor in the Department of Computer Science. I completed my Ph.D. dissertation in October 2004 under the supervision of Professor Tomasz Arciszewski. Since that time, I have been working as an Assistant Research Instructor and a Research Assistant Professor in the Volgenau School of Information Technology & Engineering and Critical Infrastructure Protection Program at George Mason University.

Currently, I live in Arlington, VA right across Potomac River and Washington, DC Mall. I am still active with sports: I play field hockey with Washington Mavericks and indoor soccer with Soccer Shots. I like traveling and learning other cultures. Whenever I have some free time I enjoy going to the mountains and hiking.