Zuzanna Szymańska, PhD, DSc, Associate Professor

Assistant Professor, Director for Education
Zuzanna Szymańska, PhD, DSc, Associate Professor
zk.szymanska@uw.edu.pl 22 874 91 04 See page

ORCID 0000-0002-2968-5627

Bio

She holds Master’s degrees in Applied Mathematics (2002) and Computer Science (2003) from the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics at the University of Warsaw. Her early research focused on mathematical models of cancer dynamics and algorithmic methods for biological data analysis.

In 2005, she joined the German–Polish Doctoral Program Graduate College “Complex Processes: Modelling, Simulation and Optimization”. She earned her PhD in Biological Sciences with distinction in 2010 at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of Prof. Maciej Żylicz (IIMCB) and Prof. Willi Jäger (Heidelberg University). Her doctoral dissertation addressed the mathematical modeling of the cellular response to heat shock and the role of heat shock proteins in cancer development.

Since 2011, she has been working as an Assistant Professor at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM), University of Warsaw, with a two-year hiatus (2018–2020) spent at the Department of Biomathematics at the Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IM PAN). She conducts interdisciplinary research combining mathematics, computational modeling, and biomedical sciences, with a particular emphasis on tissue growth processes, regeneration, and intracellular protein dynamics.

In 2024, she was awarded her habilitation (DSc degree) in Biomedical Engineering by the Silesian University of Technology for her work on the mathematical modeling of tissue growth and regeneration processes, focusing on non-local interactions. Since October 2024, she has served as the Director of Education at ICM while continuing to contribute to strategic initiatives as a member of the Coordinating Committee for the Priority Research Area “Petabyte Challenge” under the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” (IDUB) program.

Selected Projects
  • Application of deterministic sampling algorithms to bayesian calibration of cancer models

    Tandem Grants for Excellence under the 'Excellence Initiative – Research University' (2025-2026)

  • Crossing the borders of physics and biology; New mathematical descriptions of natural phenomena

    Thematic Research Program under the 'Excellence Initiative – Research University' Program (2024)

  • Inverse problems for tissue growth models

    New Ideas Grant under the 'Excellence Initiative – Research University' Program (2023–2024)

  • PDE’s in mathematical biology

    Thematic Research Program under the 'Excellence Initiative – Research University' Program (2023)

  • Inverse problems in cancer modeling

    HARMONIA Grant of the National Science Centre, UMO-2017/26/M/ST1/00783

  • Impact of external stress factors on biological systems: development and validation analysis of new multiscale mathematical models for prediction and control

    SONATA Grant of the National Science Centre, UMO-2011/01/D/ST/04133

Selected Publications

  • Beyond Bayesian Inference: The Correlation Integral Likelihood Framework and Gradient Flow Methods for Deterministic Sampling

    Gwiazda, P., Kazarnikov, A., Marciniak-Czochra, A., Szymańska, Z.

    Bull. Math. Biol., 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.03122

  • CAR-T cell therapy for glioblastoma: insight from mathematical modeling

    Szafrańska-Łęczycka, M., Szymańska, Z., Piotrowska, M. J., Bodnar, M., Foryś, U.

    Frontiers in Immunology, 16:1563829, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2025.1563829

  • Lipschitz stability for Bayesian inference in porous medium tissue growth models

    Dębiec, T. Gwiazda, P., Miasojedow, B., Ryszewska, K., Szymańska, Z., Wróblewska-Kamińska, A.

    arXiv:2506.04769, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.04769

  • Mathematical modelling of cancer invasion: Pheno-typic transitioning provides insight into multifocal foci formation

    Szymańska, Z., Lachowicz, M., Sfakianakis, N., Chaplain, M.A.J.

    Journal of Computational Science, 75, 102175, 2024

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocs.2023.102175

  • Convergence of the EBT method for a non-local model of cell proliferation with discontinuous interaction kernel

    Gwiazda, P., Miasojedow, B., Skrzeczkowski, J., Szymańska, Z.

    IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis, 43(1), 590–626, 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/imanum/drab102

  • Bayesian inference of a non-local proliferation model

    Szymańska, Z., Skrzeczkowski, J., Miasojedow, B., Gwiazda, P.

    Royal Society Open Science, 8:211279, 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211279

  • Mathematical modelling of collagen fibres rearrangement during the tendon healing process

    Carrillo, J.A., Parisot, M., Szymańska, Z.

    Kinetic & Related Models, 14(2), 283–301, 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3934/krm.2021005

  • Mathematical Model Explaining the Role of CDC6 in the Diauxic Growth of CDK1 Activity during the M-Phase of the Cell Cycle

    Dębowski, M., Szymańska, Z., Kubiak, J. Z., Lachowicz, M..

    Cells, 8(12):1537, 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8121537

  • A Simple Model of Collagen Remodelling

    Dudziuk, G., Lachowicz, M., Leszczyński, H., Szymańska, Z.,

    Discrete Continuous Dynamical Systems B, 24(5):1-14, 2019;

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3934/dcdsb.2019091

  • Biologically sound formal model of Hsp70 heat induction

    Dudziuk, G., Wronowska, W., Gambin, A., Szymańska, Z., Rybiński, M.

    Journal of Theoretical Biology, 478(7), 74–101, 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2019.05.022

  • Computational modelling of cancer growth and invasion: Modelling at multiple scales and multiscale modelling

    Szymańska, Z., Cytowski, M., Mitchell, E., Macnamara, C.K., Chaplain, M.A.J.

    Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 80(5):1366–1403, 2018

  • Implementation of an Agent-Based Parallel Tissue Modelling Framework for the Intel MIC Architecture

    Cytowski, M., Szymańska, Z., Umiński, P., Andrejczuk, G., Raszkowski, K.

    Scientific Programming, 2017, 8721612, 2017

  • Micro and Macro Systems in Life Sciences (Preface)

    Friedman, A., Lachowicz, M., Ledzewicz, U., Piotrowska, M. J., Szymańska, Z.

    Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, 14(1):i-i, 2017

  • Intracellular protein dynamics as a mathematical problem

    Lachowicz, M., Parisot, M., Szymańska, Z.

    Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems – B, 21(8):1-15, 2016

  • Enabling Large Scale Individual-Based Modelling through High Performance Computing

    Cytowski, M., Szymańska, Z.

    ITM Web of Conferences, 5:00014, 2015

  • Large Scale Parallel Simulations of 3-D Cell Colony Dynamics. II. Coupling with continuous description of cellular environment

    Cytowski, M., SLacho- wicz, M., Szymańska, Z.zymańska, Z.

    IEEE Computing in Science & Engine- ering, 17(5):44-48, 2015

  • Nonlocal models of biological phenomena: Comment on On the interplay between mathematical and biology, hallmarks towards a new system biology by Bellomo, Elaiw, Althiabi and Alghamdi

    Lachowicz, M., Szymańska, Z.

    Physics of Life Reviews, 12:76-77, 2015

  • Large Scale Parallel Simulations of 3-D Cell Colony Dynamics

    Cytowski, M., Szymańska, Z.

    IEEE Computing in Science & Engineering, 16(5): 86-95, 2014

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