On  May  5th, 2018 Professor Agata Smoktunowicz was awarded the Scientific Award of the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the year 2018 for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of mathematics.

Agata Smoktunowicz is a Professor of Algebra at the School of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh  She  works in noncommutative algebra. In 2006, she proved the Artin–Stafford Gap Conjecture, namely that there are no graded domains with GK dimension strictly between 2 and 3, and has also proved a wide range of long-standing problems in noncommutative ring theory. We mention in particular the construction of an infinite dimensional affine nil algebra with finite Gelfand–Kirillov dimension (jointly with T. H. Lenagan), and the solution to a 1970 conjecture of  Kaplansky of the existence of a simple nil ring and  a 1973 conjecture of Amitsur showing that polynomial rings over nil rings need not be nil.

More recently she has worked on connections between noncommutative ring theory and other research areas, such as noncommutative geometry and theory of braces and skew braces. She solved a conjecture of Donovan and Wemyss on the minimal dimension of an Acon. She has  investigated adjoint groups of nil rings, showing that that they need not be Engel groups, thus answering a question of Amberg and Sysak, and in the case of nil algebras over uncountable fields also a question of E. Zelmanov. She worked on the Jacobson radical of differential polynomial rings, where she answered a conjecture of I. Shestakov (jointly with M. Ziembowski). She also showed that differential polynomial rings over non nil rings can be Jacobson radical.

Stanislawa Kanas, President of  Polish Women in Mathematics