Dr Magdalena Palacz was born in 1975 in Gliwice. In 1994 she started hes higher education at the Silesian Technical University in Gliwice at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. In 1999 she finished her studies and obtained a master degree from the Department of Applied Mechanics. In the same year she started working at the Szewalski Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery in Gdansk as a research assistant, where she has been working until now. In the meantime, in 2002, she obtained a Ph.D. title in Mechanics from the same Szewalski Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery.

Her scientific interests are focused on static and dynamic behavior of damaged structures, development of new damage identification procedures with the use of propagating waves, and also on the development of new finite elements with various types of damage.

Since 1999 Dr Magdalena Palacz has published as the author or co-author 21 research papers, including 8 published in top international journal. She has also presented the results of her research at 13 international and Polish scientific meetings and conferences.

Dr Magdalena Palacz has been working as the primary or secondary investigator in a number (5 in total) of Polish or international research projects.

Dr Magdalena Palacz has been a reviewer for such international scientific journal papers as: Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, Composite Structures and Journal of Sound and Vibration.

She was also involved, as a member of the Szewalski Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery team, in organisation in Gdansk of DAMAS 2005 International Conference on Damage Assessment of Structures.

International research experience:

• 3-month research scholarship at Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany, 1999
• 15-month research scholarship at EADS, Munich, Germany, 2002-2004

• 3-month scholarship founded through a Socrates-Erasmus program, 1999
• 1-year scholarship founded by the Foundation for Polish Science, 2003