Dr. Gregory Jerkiewicz, a Professor in Queen’s University Department of Chemistry, studied Chemical Engineering-Engineering Chemistry and Solid-State Physics at Gdansk University of Technology, Poland, in the 1980s. He immigrated to Canada in 1985 and, in 1991, earned a doctorate at the University of Ottawa. There, he received several awards including the prestigious Noranda Bradfield Fellowship supported by the Electrolyser Corporation and the late Alexander K. Stuart. In 1992, he was awarded a special Research Professorship by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Quebec and held this position at the Université de Sherbrooke until 2002 when he moved to Queen’s University. He was also a junior holder of a Hydrogen Research Chair while at Sherbrooke. Dr. Jerkiewicz has won several awards including Electrochemistry Award of the Société Française de Chimie (1997), the first time ever awarded to a researcher residing outside of France; the W. A. E. McBryde Medal of the Canadian Society for Chemistry (2004); the Rio Tinto Award of the same Society (2022); and the Eminent Visitor Award of the Catalysis Society of South Africa (2018). He is the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Electrocatalysis., and has served on several executive committees, advisory boards, and grant selection committees including the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society for Chemistry and the Executive Committee of the Canadian Section of the Electrochemical Society.
Professor Jerkiewicz is internationally renowned for his contributions to hydrogen, platinum, and nickel electrochemistry and electrocatalysis. He has authored about 150 publications including numerous peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and has delivered over 200 plenary, keynote lectures and seminars, and 260 conference presentations. In 2012, the President of Poland bestowed on him a Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (equivalent to the Order of Canada), in 2018, the title of Professor of Chemical Sciences, and in 2023, a Cross of Freedom and Solidarity, honouring members of the country’s democratic opposition who were killed or faced other consequences as a result of their activities for the benefit of a free and democratic Poland.
