Dr Przemysław Mróz from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw (UW) was awarded the Frank Wilczek Award for characterizing the population of free planets in the Milky Way and discovering the most reliable low-mass free planets.

The Frank Wilczek Award was established in February 2019 by the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the Kościuszko Foundation. It is awarded every 2 years to young Polish scientists who have made a significant discovery in physics, astronomy or similar fields.

The researcher from the University of Warsaw conducted a comprehensive analysis of the phenomena of gravitational microlensing to find phenomena with very short time scales (characteristic of low-mass objects) and to use them to determine the frequency of free planets in the Galaxy.