Candela’s story

We established the Candela Foundation on February 25, 2021, following a crowdfunding campaign initiated by a group of alumni, staff, and doctoral students from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw: Michał Karpiński, Mihai Suster, Piotr Węgrzyn, and Adam Widomski. We met while being involved in the University of Warsaw Optics and Photonics Science Club (KNOF), which has supported students and doctoral candidates since 2010. Our motivation for founding the organization was to leverage our experiences from KNOF and expand our activities to support a broader audience and stimulate the development of optics and photonics in Poland. The first discussions about founding the organization took place in January 2020, and we began drafting the foundation’s statute in August 2020. We invited collaborators dedicated to advancing optics and photonics in Poland, whose contributions were instrumental in co-creating our foundation.

January 18, 2021

We launched a crowdfunding campaign “Build with us a foundation supporting young scientists in Poland” on the zrzutka.pl platform. In just 10 hours, we raised the full amount. As promised, the list of people who supported the still non-existent Candela Foundation was published on our website.

February 2, 2021

We signed the founding act, establishing the Candela Foundation, and sent the complete documentation for registration to the District Court for the City of Warsaw.

February 25, 2021

The Candela Foundation appeared in the National Court Register, which allowed us to begin operations with full legal identity.

April 1, 2021

We completed the crowdfunding campaign that enabled the establishment of the Candela Foundation. The list of people who financially supported our initiative is provided below. We managed to raise 11,500 PLN, which was 143% of the originally planned amount (8,000 PLN). The funds collected allowed us to start operations and finance the Foundation’s first projects.

Funders received letters of support from the following organisations:

Acknowledgments

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the Donors who supported the initiative to establish the Foundation. Special thanks go to those who earned lifetime titles of Graphene Miracle Worker, Diamond Benefactor, and Golden King through their contributions. Thank you for your support and trust!

Graphene Miracle Workers

  • Shawn Langan

  • Tomasz Widomski

  • Michał Ziemski

Diamond Benefactors

  • Filip Sośnicki

  • Jan Suffczynski

  • Danuta Węgrzyn

  • Jan Węgrzyn

  • Izabela Widomska

  • Jakub Wójcik

Golden Kings and Queens

  • Anna

  • Jakub Bogusławski

  • Danuta Węgrzyn

  • Julia Derlikiewicz

  • Ikanowicz & Co

  • Patrycja Janowska

  • Eugeniusz Karpiński

  • Marta Kąkol

  • Kamila Klimala

  • Mariusz Klimczak

  • Marcin Kosiński

  • Wiesława Kowalska

  • Grzegorz Skorupko

  • Michał Staniszewski

  • Dorota Tomaszewska

  • Roman Węgrzyn

  • Ryszard Węgrzyn

  • Agata Widomska

  • Aleksandra Wieloszyńska

  • Mariola Zamojska

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