The President of the Republic of Poland has conferred the title of Professor on Dr Witold Cieślikiewicz.

He graduated in theoretical physics from the University of Gdańsk. He obtained his PhD in technical sciences at the Institute of Hydro-Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBW PAN), and his DSc (habilitation) in Earth sciences, in the discipline of oceanography, at the Institute of Oceanography of the University of Gdańsk. His research focuses on geophysical fluid mechanics and ocean dynamics, in particular on the physics of ocean waves and on the applications of stochastic process theory to the study of wind-generated water waves.

He is affiliated with the Department of Coastal Engineering and Dynamics of the Institute of Hydro-Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, where he conducts research on coastal hydrodynamics and the modelling of meteorological and oceanographic processes. His scientific interests include stochastic and probabilistic properties of wind-wave fields, applications of stochastic process theory and information theory to the description of wave phenomena, the use of extreme-value theory for design-wave estimation, and the application of system-identification methods to the modelling of complex processes in the marine environment. An important part of his work also concerns the interaction of sea waves with coastal and offshore structures.

For many years he was affiliated with the University of Gdańsk, where he lectured and conducted seminars in geophysical fluid dynamics, ocean dynamics, mathematical methods in oceanography, and the theory of dynamical systems in biology and oceanography.

He has also worked in foreign institutions, including British Maritime Technology in Southampton (1994–1997) and the Directorate-General for Research and Development of the European Commission in Brussels (2004–2008), and collaborated with research centres in Norway and Germany. He has served as a leader and researcher in numerous national and international scientific projects implemented under the programmes of the Committee for Scientific Research, the Innovative Economy Operational Programme, the Digital Poland Operational Programme, the European Union, and bilateral cooperation schemes.

He has supervised PhD and MSc theses, reviewed doctoral and habilitation dissertations, and actively participates in national and international scientific cooperation networks. His publication record includes numerous papers devoted to the statistics of extreme waves, the dynamics of wind-wave fields, numerical modelling of wave processes, and their applications in marine engineering.