Prof. dr hab. n. med. Tomasz Szczepański graduated from the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice in 1994 and is a specialist in paediatrics and paediatric oncology and haematology.
Since the beginning of his academic career, his research has focused particularly on the diagnosis and treatment of childhood leukaemia. In 1995/1996, he completed a research fellowship at the Department of Immunology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, supported by a research scholarship funded by Rotary International. In May 1997, he defended with distinction his doctoral dissertation entitled “Immunophenotyping of Acute Lympho- and Myeloproliferative Diseases in Children – Possibilities for Monitoring Minimal Residual Disease”. After obtaining his PhD, he continued his research in Rotterdam from 1997 to 1999.
Since 2000, he has worked at the Department and Clinic of Paediatrics, Paediatric Haematology and Oncology at the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice (SUM), as well as at the Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology of the Prof. Stanisław Szyszko Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 1 of the Medical University of Silesia in Zabrze. In 2005, he completed his habilitation on the basis of the dissertation “Immunoglobulin and T-Cell Receptor Gene Rearrangements in Precursor B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in Children”, which received an award from the Prime Minister of Poland. In 2009, he was awarded the title of Professor of Medical Sciences by the President of the Republic of Poland. Since 2009, he has headed the Department of Paediatrics, Paediatric Haematology and Oncology at the Medical University of Silesia, and since 2010 he has served as Regional Consultant in Paediatric Oncology and Haematology for the Silesian Voivodeship.
From 2015 to 2016, he was a member of the Committee for Evaluation of Scientific Units. From 2016 to 2020, he served as Vice-Rector for Research at the Medical University of Silesia, and since 1 September 2020 he has served as Rector of the University.
He is the co-author of more than 350 publications in Polish and international journals, which have received over 9,000 citations to date, with an h-index of 48. He is a member of numerous scientific societies, including the Polish Paediatric Society, where he has been a member of the Main Board since 2007 and Vice-President since 2023; the Polish Society of Haematologists and Transfusion Medicine, where he has been a member of the Main Board and Vice-President since 2023; and the Polish Society of Paediatric Oncology and Haematology, where he has been a member of the Main Board since 2007 and served as President from 2016 to 2024.
He is also a member of the College of Laboratory Medicine, the Polish Cytometric Society, the European Hematology Association, the American Society of Hematology, the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP), having served on the Board of SIOP Europe from 2019 to 2021, and the European Society for Clinical Cell Analysis. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the journal LEUKEMIA and Editor-in-Chief of Pediatria Polska.