Prof. Krzysztof Bankiewicz, an outstanding neurosurgeon from the University of California, a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), received the Nicolaus Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Sciences. This distinction is awarded for outstanding scientific achievements of scientists who significantly contribute to the science in Poland and who are not national members of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Bankiewicz made a breakthrough in gene therapy for rare, so far incurable neurodegenerative diseases and malignant brain tumors. He pioneered the method of introducing different vectors with normal genes or targeted drugs directly into specific regions of the brain or tumors.

He graduated from the Medical University of Nicolaus Copernicus in Kraków (now Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University), where he presented his PhD thesis and became a doctor and Associate Professor at the Institute of Neurology and Psychiatry in Warsaw. Since 1998, he has been a professor at the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of California (San Francisco, USA).

Since 2017, Prof. Krzysztof Bankiewicz has been a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.