Prof. Rafał Matera has been associated with the University of Lodz since 1991. During this period, he went through all the stages of academic career, from a researcher to the Full Professor. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the University of Lodz. He received his MA degree in 1996 and in 1999 he started working at the University of Lodz. He was awarded the PhD degree in Economics in 2001, and then in 2011, he became a doctor with habilitation. The President of the Republic of Poland awarded him the title of Professor of Social Sciences in the discipline of Economics and Finance in 2023. He has been the Dean of the University of Lodz Faculty of Economics and Sociology since 2016. Before that he coordinated mobility programmes at the faculty.
Prof. Matera is an economic historian. His scientific interests focus on the world economy, transatlantic relations, the role of institutions in economic life and economic thought. He values, implements and promotes an interdisciplinary approach in science and organisational activity. He is the author and co-author of over 130 publications. He promoted three doctors and two more working under his supervision will soon defend their dissertations. More than 120 students wrote their BA and MA theses under his supervision and several of them were honoured in various competitions. Prof. Matera was also the supervisor of the Honorary Doctorates awarded by the University of Lodz to Jeffrey Sachs in 2019 and to Herman Van Rompuy in 2021. He is a member of the board of the Polish Association of Economic History and a member of the Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe [Łódź Scientific Society]. He will become the 20th Rector of the University of Lodz on 1 September 2024.
The Rector of the University of Lodz was elected by the Electoral Board, consisting of 200 representatives of employees, students and doctoral students of the university. The electors had been chosen in elections by employees, students and doctoral students. The University of Lodz Electoral Commission supervised the organisation of the entire electoral process. The term of office of the Rector is 4 years.
Photo: Dr hab. Katarzyna De Lazari-Radek, Associate Professor at the University of Lodz