doi.bio/maciej_antczak

Maciej Antczak

Maciej Roman Antczak is a Polish computer scientist, engineer, and bioinformatician. He specialises in the design and analysis of algorithms and computational methods that solve combinatorial problems in molecular biology. Antczak is currently affiliated with the Institute of Computing Science at Poznan University of Technology and the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Education and Career

Maciej Antczak completed his Bachelor's degree in Informatics at Poznan University of Technology in 2005. He then went on to obtain his doctoral degree in 2013 from the same university, with a dissertation titled "Algorithmic Aspects of Modelling and Evaluation of Biomolecules" supervised by Prof. Marta Kasprzak. In 2019, he was awarded the degree of Doctor Habilitated in Engineering and Technical Sciences by the Poznan University of Technology. This recognition was based on his achievements, particularly his work on "Computational Methods Supporting the Modelling of Complex RNA Molecule Structures".

Research and Publications

Maciej Antczak has co-authored numerous specialised algorithms, efficient tools, and widely used computational servers for modelling and comprehensively analysing the spatial structures of biological molecules, with a specific focus on RNA. His contributions include the RNAComposer system, which enables the automatic modelling of 3D RNA structures based on nucleotide sequences. He has also been involved in the international RNA-Puzzles initiative, developing solutions to enhance the 3D modelling process for complex RNA molecules and support the automation of evaluation procedures for submitted 3D RNA models.

Antczak has published articles in renowned journals, including "Bioinformatics", "Nucleic Acids Research", "ACM Computing Surveys", "BMC Bioinformatics", "RNA", and "International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computing Science".

Awards and Recognition

In 2019, Maciej Antczak was a finalist for the 19th edition of the Scientific Awards of Polityka in the "Technical Sciences" category. The following year, he received a three-year scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scientists. He has also been recognised by the Polish Academy of Sciences - Division IV (Technical Sciences) for his cycle of 11 articles titled "Effective algorithms and methods for structural bioinformatics challenges".