Mariusz Józef Figurski (born 27 April 1964 in Łasinie, Poland) - Polish geodesist, professor of technical sciences, professor at the Gdańsk University of Technology.

Early life and education

He passed the matriculation examination in 1983 after he had finished Jan III Sobieski High school in Grudziądz. He graduated the Military University of Technology on an individual mode at the Faculty of Electromechanics and Civil Engineering and Geodesy in 1989 (Master of Science in the field of electromechanics). Department of Geodesy and Cartography of Warsaw University awarded him with PhD degree in technical sciences in 1995 and the post-doctoral degree (degree of habilitated doctor) was given to him by the Council of the Faculty of Engineering, Chemistry and Technical Physics of the Military University of Technology in 2005. He obtained the title of professor of technical sciences on 17th February 2015 by decision of the President of the Republic of Poland. After graduation, he started working at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy at the Military University of Technology as an engineer (1989-1994), assistant (1994-1995), assistant professor (1996-2006), associate professor (2006-2015) and professor (2015-2017 ). He was also working at the Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography of the Warsaw University of Technology in the 1999-2006. In the years 2006-2012 he served as vice dean for science at Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy at the Military University of Technology and he served as Vice-Rector for the development at the Military University of Technology in the years 2012-2016. He has been working at the Department of Geodesy at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Gdańsk University of Technology since 2017.

Scientific career

He served as an expert and consultant in the project ASG-EUPOS in the years 2007 – 2009 and as the head of the expert team in the ASG-EUPOS project in years 2008-2009. He was a member of the Geodesy Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences in years 2011–2014, 2015–2018, and a member of the Committee of the Space and Satellite Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in years 2011–2014, while in years 2015-2018 he was a member of presidium of  the Committee of the Space and Satellite Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He was also the Chairman of the Section of Satellite Geodesy of the Committee of the Space and Satellite Research in years 2015-2018. He has been a chairmen of the Polish Committee for Standardization since 2009, a member of the General Assembly of the Scientific Network National Center for Space and Satellite Engineering since 2013 and a chairman of the Scientific Council of the Space and Satellite Engineering Cluster since 2014. He has been a Vice-President of the National Center for Radio Astronomy and Space Engineering since 2014. He was a member of the Committee of Information Infrastructure at the Conference of Academic Schools Rectors in Poland in 2012 - 2016. He has managed (or has been a contractor) over 30 research projects and independent research tasks co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, structural funds of the European Union, the Committee for Scientific Research, the National Science Center, and National Centre for Research and Development. Most important of them are: “Analysis of changes of EPN network coordinates in the context of archival data reprocessing” (project manager - supervisor's grant), “The use of a numerical terrain model in the GPS navigation solution” (project manager - supervisor's grant), “The final elaboration of archival GPS observations of the EPN network from 1996-2007” (project manager). He was a contractor (manager of team of experts) of a project financed by EU funds (2006-2008) entitled "Multi-functional ASG-EUPOS precision satellite positioning system" performed by the Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography in Warsaw as part of the Sectoral Operational Program - Improvement of the Competitiveness of Enterprises in years 2004-2006.

He also managed the research and development grant "Construction of ASG-EUPOS real time support modules". He participated in the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) project ES1206 "Advanced Global Navigation Satellite Systems in the years 2013-2017. Tropospheric products for monitoring severe weather events and climate (GNSS4SWEC)". He has been managing the computational project at CI TASK "Parameterisation and development of the mezoscale numerical high-resolution WRF weather model with assimilation of meteorological and GNSS data" since 2017. He is originator and inspirator of the implementation of a high-resolution weather forecasting model and METEOPG weather portal at the Gdańsk University of Technology.

He is initiator of scientific and research cooperation with research centres in Poland and abroad, including: Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences, Space Research Centre Polish Academy of Sciences, Centre for Astronomy Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Polish Geological Institute, FOMI Satellite Geodetic Observatory, Sloval University of Technology in Bratislava, Institut Géographique National, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie, Nordic Geodetic Commission, Lantmäteriet and Onsala Space Observatory and Institute of Radio Astronomy at National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He is initiator of scientific and research cooperation with enterprises and public administration bodies in the field of the use of satellite techniques in geodesy and navigation, including: the Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography, Vattenfall, Geotronics Polska, GPS.PL, Leica Geosystems or Warszawskie Przedsiębiorstwo Geodezyjne (Warsaw Geodetic Company). He was a member of the Supervisory Board of Aircraft Propulsion Laboratory AERO Polonia Sp. z o.o. in the years 2012-2016., which built in Zielonka near Warsaw the Laboratory of Aerodynamics of Turbine Flows, one of the largest and most modern laboratories of this type in the world. He also sat on the Supervisory Board of the National Agency for Photodynamic Diagnosis and Cancer Therapy S.A.

He is initiator and creator of the "Center of Applied Geomatics" - a research and development team which aim was to develop new research areas in the field of geodesy and related sciences and has been cooperating in the observations processing from the European network of permanent GNSS stations (EPN project), continuously since 1996. He is initiator of the establishment the EPN Analysis Center (EPN AC) at the Military University of Technology and creator of the processing strategy used for the EPN archival observations reprocessing in years1996-2007. He is author of the implementation of the first system for parallel processing and modelling of geophysical, geodynamic and geodetic data (so called FENIX cluster) in the Military University of Technology, for which he received the subsidy from the Scientific Research Committee in 2005. He is inspirer of the establishing the National Centre for Space and Satellite Engineering as a joint venture of the Military University of Technology and the Space Research Centre and the establishing of the National Center for Radioastronomy and Space Engineering.

He has conducted didactic classes in satellite geodesy, computer science in geodesy, geodetic astronomy, and many other specialist subjects in the field of geodesy and cartography, geophysics and computer science. He has been academic supervisor of students within scientific circles, including students studying in an individual mode, graduating with very good diploma theses, for which they were awarded with national and foreign prizes. He is author and co-author of programs taught in the field of geodesy and cartography for engineering, master's and doctoral studies, co-author of post-graduate studies in the field of railway geodesy. In total, he has promoted over 40 Masters of Science and Engineers, as well as 6 PhDs in technical sciences.

He is a reviewer in scientific journals and national and international conference materials and was the organizer of scientific conferences of the Geodesy Committee of the Satellite Committee for Space and Satellite Research, as well as international workshops "EUREF Analysis Centres Workshop".  He has also been part of scientific committees of dozens of national and international conferences.

He is a co-author of 5 monographs, over 300 scientific papers, including dozens of papers published in journals distinguished in the Journal Citation Reports and over 170 conference presentations presented at national and international conferences (IAG, AGU, FIG, EGS, EUREF). He is also the author of several unpublished publications and reports of researches commissioned by economic entities and public administration. His works, according to Web of Science, has been cited with the exception of self-citations more than 250 times, his Hirsch index is 10. He is and Author of a uniform alignment of the WSSG network (Military Special Network of Surveying) (1999), a new alignment of the EUREF-POL, POLREF and EUVN networks and co-author of the alignment of the geodetic control network of the second Warsaw Metro line. He was also an expert in a research team establishment for the developing of the regulation for the national spatial reference system. His remaining scientific achievement includes dozens of studies in the field of numerical development of GNSS satellite observations and applications of satellite and space techniques in the national economy and numerical weather modelling.

His research interests include several areas, including: development of methods for determining and monitoring of geodetic coordinates by integrating satellite and space measurement techniques such as GNSS, VLBI and SLR, monitoring and modelling of the ionosphere and troposphere in real time using PPP (Precise Point Positioning) methods, modelling of the Earth's atmosphere using numerical weather models (COAMPS, WRF), searching for new methods of time series analysis under the account of analyzing geophysical changes in the Earth’s ecosystem or development of an autonomous space-time navigation system based on pulsars. Since 2017, as part of the conducted research, he has been developing the "open science" movement at the Gdańsk University of Technology, he has introduced a new concept of conducting research within open scientific teams called "open team".