A third-year Imperial College London student was chosen as a 'young scientist' to meet The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Warsaw in July.

Jan Przybylowicz, now halfway through Imperial’s six-year MBBS/BSc degree, was chosen as a rising star in both science and entrepreneurship to speak to the Duke and Duchess alongside other young talents from a variety of backgrounds.

As part of the royal couple’s first official visit to Poland, they were invited to the Warsaw Spire by the British Embassy to meet young scientists and to speak to them about their studies and research, as well as plans for the future, both in their fields of interest and beyond.

Jan cites his medical studies at Imperial as one of the main contributing factors leading to his selection for the event: “I was proud to represent Imperial College and talk about the importance of international collaboration, especially between Poland and the UK.”

A budding entrepreneur, Jan is one of the project leaders responsible for the organisation of the Poland 2.0 Summit - a conference about innovation across industries - providing a networking platform for students, researchers and entrepreneurs as well as corporations from both Poland and the UK. Held annually at Imperial, this year the conference is expecting around 300 delegates to attend.

Jan has also completed a research project on ‘the effect of magnesium sulphate heptahydrate on exopolysaccharide production by lactic acid bacteria’, which won him second place at E(x)plory — Poland’s largest science contest for young people.

Jan, far left, with the Duchess of Cambridge and other young scientists, Wojciech Rozowski and Dominika Bakalarz

“It was an honour to have a conversation with The Duke and Duchess, about plans, ambition and life in the UK,” said Jan, adding that the experience was an amazing and extremely motivating one.

“I am grateful to all the staff at Imperial and particularly the School of Medicine for making my education so fruitful, and for constantly supporting my and others’ extracurricular activities.”

You can see the Tweet from Kensington Palace promoting the event on Twitter. To find out more on the Poland 2.0 Summit, taking place on 18 November at Imperial, please visit the Poland 2.0 website.