Anna Makal

Anna Makal is a solid-state chemist and crystallographer, educated at the University of Warsaw, Poland, where she earned a BSc in Molecular Biology, followed by an MSc and PhD in Chemical Sciences. Her postdoctoral research, focused on time-resolved crystallography, was conducted under the mentorship of Prof. Philip Coppens at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, NY. Since 2022 she has held the position of Associate Professor in Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw.

Her scientific work focuses on linking the macroscopic physicochemical properties of crystalline materials (e.g., luminescence, piezochromism) to the intricacies of their supramolecular arrangements. Currently, her research focuses on polymorphism in model luminescent compounds: pyrene derivatives and gold(I) complexes. She employs high-pressure diffraction techniques to probe structural dynamics, induce phase transitions and modify intermolecular interactions. Among her recent objectives is the improvement of high-pressure X-ray diffraction methodologies for moderately-diffracting, low-symmetry crystal systems, alongside an in-depth investigation of phase-transition mechanisms with as much structural detail as possible.