Open Mind

My mind is open

Paul Erdős

The Open Mind Prize is awarded biennially during the Polish Combinatorial Conference to a junior Polish researcher for outstanding research in combinatorics. Out of all applicants, the Prize Committee nominates three final contenders who deliver special lectures during the conference. One of the invited speakers, chosen by the Program Committee, selects and announces the winner. For more details see the rules of the Prize. The Prize was awarded for the first time in 2010. Here is the list of the past winners (we give the affiliations at the time the Prize was awarded):

  • 2022: Karol Węgrzycki (Saarland University), announced by Maria Chudnovsky
    other finalists: Karolina Okrasa, Adam Polak
  • 2020: Marcin Wrochna (University of Oxford), announced by Zoltan Füredi
    other finalists: Jakub Konieczny, Jakub Tarnawski
  • 2018: Andrzej Grzesik (Jagiellonian University, University of Warwick), announced by Béla Bollobás
    other finalists: Jakub Konieczny, Paweł Rzążewski
  • 2016: Michał Lasoń (Polish Academy of Sciences), announced by Michał Karoński
    other finalists: Andrzej Grzesik, Michał Pilipczuk
  • 2014: Aleksander Mądry (EPFL Lausanne), announced by Alan Frieze
    other finalists: Marek Cygan, Bartosz Walczak
  • 2012: Wojciech Samotij (University of Cambridge), announced by Endre Szemerédi
    other finalists: Marek Cygan, Jakub Przybyło
  • 2010: Barłomiej Bosek (Jagiellonian University) and Andrzej Dudek (Carnegie Mellon University), announced by Tomasz Łuczak
    other finalists: Jakub Przybyło

Open Mind Prize – Rules

  1. The Prize is awarded for a result or a series of results in broadly understood combinatorics.
  2. The Prize can be awarded to a young researcher who:
    • is either a Polish citizen or completed her/his Ph.D. in Poland;
    • either has not got her/his Ph.D. yet or completed it not earlier than three years before the year when the Prize is awarded (therefore in 2024 edition the earliest admissible year of completing the Ph.D is 2021);
    • has not been awarded the Prize before.
  3. The nomination for the prize should be sent via e-mail before July 15th in the year when the Prize is awarded. The submission should include a short description of the results which are presented for the Prize.
  4. The Program Committee of the Polish Combinatorial Conference chooses the Prize Committee (which, typically consists of all Polish professors working in the field) which, in general voting, selects at most three nominees. They are invited to give special lectures at the Polish Combinatorial Conference. The Program Committee asks one of the invited speakers of the Polish Combinatorial Conference to select the winner and announce her/him during the conference.