is a full professor, head of the Neurocognitive Laboratory at the Interdisciplinary Center for Modern Technologies, the Neuroinformatics and Artificial Intelligence team at the University Centre of Excellence for Dynamics, Mathematical Analysis and Artificial Intelligence, and a member of the Department of Applied Computer Science at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He also worked at the School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore as Nanyang Visiting Professor and Visiting Professor (2003-2012). He graduated in theoretical physics (1977), defended his doctorate in quantum chemistry (1980), completed his habilitation in applied mathematics (1987), and after completing his doctorate, worked at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (1980-82). He later worked at the Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Munich (1984-2001), the Kyushu Institute of Technology, the Universities of Tokyo, Rikkyo, and Meiji Universities in Japan, the University of Florida (Gainsville, USA), the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and several other institutions. From 2012 to 2014, he served as Vice-Rector for Research and Computer Science at Nicolaus Copernicus University, and from April 2014 to December 2015 as Deputy Minister (Undersecretary of State) in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Włodzisław Duch is/was a member of the editorial boards of 16 international scientific journals. He is also a co-founder of numerous scientific societies (computational physics, neural networks, cognitive science, artificial intelligence) and journals related to these disciplines. He served two terms as president of the European Neural Networks Society (2006-2008-2011). In 2013, he was elected a Fellow of the International Neural Networks Society. He is an active member of the IEEE CIS technical committee and an expert on European Union scientific programs. He is a member of the Commission on Complex Systems of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published over 375 scientific articles and 290 popular science articles, written six books, and co-edited 21 others. His company, DuchSoft, created the GhostMiner software, which is marketed by Fujitsu.
Włodzisław Duch's primary research interests were initially computer and molecular physics (1977-1990), then (1990-2012) computational intelligence (CBI), including methods for understanding data structures; a general theory of computer intelligence based on similarity assessment and transformation folding; and meta-learning, which automatically finds the best model for a given dataset; neurocognitive computing, i.e., algorithms inspired by the way the brain functions at multiple levels; cognitive architectures; neurodynamic models of mental illness integrating the genetic, molecular, and behavioral levels; and models for visualizing mental events. He has also published several articles on the philosophy of mind. Since 2013, he has focused on the development of the Neurocognitive Laboratory at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, where he conducts theoretical and experimental research on cognitive processes, and since 2020 he has headed the "Neuroinformatics and Artificial Intelligence" team within the University Center of Excellence "Dynamics, mathematical analysis and artificial intelligence".
With extensive experience in many scientific fields and an understanding of diverse cultures, Włodzisław Duch strives to bring diverse scientific communities closer together. Much information about his work, scientific papers, and lecture notes can be found on his website by searching "W. Duch" in Google or other online search engines.
