Rector of the Warsaw University of Technology in 2012-2020, Chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (KRASP) in 2016-2020, Honorary Chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (KRASP) 2020-2024.

In the years 2002-2005, he served as Vice-Dean and then Dean of the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology (2008-2012) and currently (2020-) is the Director of the Institute of Microelectronics and Optoelectronics at this Faculty.

Graduate of the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology at the Warsaw University of Technology (1976). At the same university, he obtained his doctorate in 1985, and in 1995, based on his scientific achievements and dissertation, he obtained the habilitation degree. In 2005, he received the title of professor of technical sciences. He specializes in microelectronics and thin film technology.

Initiator, contractor or manager of over 70 research and R&D projects (domestic and international), carried out in cooperation with teams from many Polish research centers (including: ITE, ITME, PWr., PŁ, PG, UMCS, AGH) and foreign (including: Imperial College London, JRC Ispra, Technical University of Liberec, Carnegie Mellon University). Prof. Jan Szmidt was also an organizer, member of organizational and program committees and chairman of several dozen national and international scientific conferences. In the achievements of prof. J. Szmidt, there are over 350 conference presentations (authors and co-authors). He was invited many times to give lectures and papers, both scientific and economic. Co-author or author of over 400 scientific publications, co-author of 15 patents and patent applications.

He was awarded the Bronze (1977), Silver (1897) and Gold (1999) Cross of Merit, the Medal of National Education (2007) and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2020), as well as the award of the IV Department of Technical Sciences PAN, the Gold Medal of the Chapter of the Academy of Polish Success, a diploma and a gold medal for the invention “diamond electrodes produced by the HF CVD method for electrochemical applications” from the Association of Polish Inventors and Rationalizers, the IFIA medal (International Federation of Inventors Associations), the “Plaque of Recognition” (Plaque of Appreciation) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, the Siemens medal, the ProJuwenes award of the Students’ Parliament of the Republic of Poland as a Prostident authority, the Nicolaus Copernicus Medal of the Management Board of the Polish Bank Association (2020), the title of “Diamond Engineer 2019” in the XXVI Readers’ Plebiscite of “Przegląd Techniczny” and many others decorations and distinctions.

Doctor Honoris Causa of the Kyiv Technical University “KPI” named after Igor Sikorski.