I began my first research as a member of prof. Kieran B. Hondett's team in the Materials and Surface Science Institute at the University of Limerick in Ireland. My participation in the research project resulted in my master’s thesis entitled Mesoporous Silica Fibres: Preparation, Characterisation and the Adsorption of Cytochrome c. I continued my academic activity in a research team led by prof. Jacek Goworek, first as a doctoral student and, subsequently, from October 2007, as a teaching and research fellow in the Department of Adsorption in the Faculty of Chemistry at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. I obtained a Ph.D. in chemical sciences after defending doctoral dissertation, Properties and temperature transformations of micellar matrices in the pores of type MCM-41 silica materials, in 2010. Since 2010, I have been employed as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Chemistry of MCSU.

My research interests include:

• Synthesis and characterization of polymer-inorganic oxide composites, ternary systems with drug and porous adsorbents
• Synthesis and characterization of porous inorganic oxides as catalysts
• Controlled release of Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs
• Studying the mechanism of adsorption and desorption of gases with the use of PALS
• Studying the formation of organic-inorganic network in the spatially limited system of polymer pores / rigid pores

In my spare time, I go jogging, ride a bike, and, when it rains, I sew with a sewing machine

Others:

Member of Polish Chemical Society (PTChem): Lublin Division,  Section of Physicochemistry of Interfacial Phenomena

Selected publications:

1. Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Radosław Zaleski, Marek Gorgol, Katarzyna Michalak, Stanisław Winiarczyk, Agnieszka Kierys, Ammonia vapor induced transformation of selected alkoxysilanes within artificial and natural polymer templates, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 576 (2022) 121288.

2. Marek Gorgol, Radosław Zaleski, Agnieszka Kierys, Daniel Kamiński, Karol Strzałkowskid, Kamil Fedus, Positron lifetime spectroscopy of defect structures in Cd1-xZnxTe mixed crystals grown by vertical Bridgman-Stockbarger method, Acta Crystallographica Section B-Structural Science Crystal Engineering and Materials 77 (2021) 515-525.

3. Agnieszka Kierys, Radosław Zaleski, Marta Grochowicz, Marek Gorgol, Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Polymer–mesoporous silica composites for drug release systems, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials 294 (2020) 109881.

4. Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Agnieszka Kierys, Marta Grochowicz, Aldona Nowicka, Jacek Goworek, Mixed-valence mesoporous manganese oxide spheres from waste manganese nitrate aqueous solution, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials 284 (2019) 353-359.

5. Agnieszka Kierys, Andrzej Sienkiewicz, Marta Grochowicz, Regina Kasperek, Polymer-amino-functionalized silica composites for the sustained-release multiparticulate system, Materials Science and Engineering: C 85 (2018) 114-122.

6. Agnieszka Kierys, Piotr Borowski, Radosław Zaleski, Mariusz Barczak, Formation of polysilsesquioxane network by vapor-phase method in the spatially limited system of cross-linked polymer pores, Polymer 141 (2018) 202-212.

7. Priya Maheshwari, Marek Gorgol, Agnieszka Kierys, Radosław Zaleski, Positron Probing of Liquid-free Volume To Investigate Adsorption–Desorption Behavior of Water in Two-Dimensional Mesoporous SBA-3, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 121 (2017) 17251-17262.

8. Radosław Zaleski, Agnieszka Kierys, Marek Gorgol, Positron insight into evolution of pore volume and penetration of the polymer network by n-heptane molecules in mesoporous XAD4, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 19 (2017) 10009-10019.

9. Agnieszka Kierys, Regina Kasperek, Patrycja Krasucka, Jacek Goworek, Encapsulation of diclofenac sodium within polymer beads by silica species via vapour-phase synthesis, Colloids and Surfaces B-Biointerfaces 142 (2016) 30-37.

10. Agnieszka Kierys, Regina Kasperek, Patrycja Krasucka, Łukasz Zimmer, Ewa Poleszak, Jacek Goworek, Effect of silica precursor transformation on diclofenac sodium release, RSC Advances 5 (2015) 94067-94076.

11. Agnieszka Kierys, Synthesis of Aspirin-loaded Polymer–Silica Composites and their Release Characteristics, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 6 (2014) 14369-14376.

12. Agnieszka Kierys, Radosław Zaleski, Waldemar Buda, Stanisław Pikus, Marek Dziadosz, Jacek Goworek, Nanostructured polymer-titanium composites and titanium oxide through polymer swelling in titania precursor, Colloid and Polymer Science, 291 (2013) 1463-1470.

13. Istvan Halasz, Agnieszka Kierys, Jacek Goworek, Haiming M. Liu, Robert E. Patterson, Si-29 NMR and Raman Glimpses into the Molecular Structures of Acid and Base Set Silica Gels Obtained from TEOS and Na-Silicate, Journal of Physical Chemistry C 115 (2011) 24788-24799.

Research projects:

• Research project Miniatura 2 “The impact of the type of silica and polymer mesophase on the kinetic of transporting an active ingredient from the formed porous composite” 2018/02/X/ST5/00549 (dr hab. Agnieszka Kierys – Supervisor)
• Research project SONATA “Investigations of the structure and properties of composite and multicomponent organic materials by positron methods”, SONATA 2013/09/D/ST2/03712, 2013 – 2016, (dr hab. Agnieszka Kierys – Co-Investigator)