Marek Urbanik
Professional profile
I am a senior scientist at the Astronomical observatory of the Jagiellonian University. My field of interest is radio astronomy. If astronomer is a person who just contemplates skies full of stars, radio astronomer is additionally listening to the radio... In fact me and my young colleagues work on magnetic fields in galaxies, and recently, also in the intergalactic space. Our basic method is the radio polarimetry of nearby galaxies. We use instruments like the 100-m giant in Effelsberg (Germany) or a whole network of 25-m dishes near Socorro NM. Recently, together with my PhD students I became involved in X-ray observations of hot gas in galaxies using the NEWTON-XMM satellite.
Private life
I'm married and I have two kids, both now married. My son is an engineer in electronics and my daughter is a journalist. Up to date all they provided me with four lovely grandkids. In the photo you can see little Ula (4 yrs old at the time of the photo), looking at galaxies in the computer.
My hobbies
Shortwave listening (so called DX-ing, picking up signals from remote parts of the world), world music, ethnic music of Africa and Asia, history of arts and culture. Generally I prefer radio over TV, iPods, and all this stuff. For me radio is an intelligent way of communication, but this is just my personal opinion of an ageing man. That's all about me...
