On December 19, 2023, in connection with the retirement of Prof. Wieslawa Lesniak and Prof. Ewa Sikora, a gala meeting was held, organized by the Scientific Council and the Board of Directors of the Nencki Institute. The meeting was an opportunity to listen to excellent lectures summarizing the previous scientific work of both Speakers. The crowded community of the Institute expressed its gratitude for the immense contribution made by the Professors to the brand of the Nencki Institute.

The speeches were recorded and archived as part of the Nencki Foundation's "Archiwum Historii Mówionej" program.

Prof. Ewa Sikora has been associated with the Nencki Institute since 1977, and is an outstanding researcher of molecular mechanisms of aging. Professor Sikora, since 1999, headed the Laboratory of Molecular Basis of Aging, and in 2001-2006, the Department of Cell Biochemistry, and in 2007, the Department of Biochemistry. She was actively involved in the activities of the Scientific Council of the Institute, being, among others, Chairman of the Committee for the Development of Scientific Personnel, from 2007 to 2010; the Committee for the Evaluation of Scientific Personnel, from 2011 to 2014; the Financial Committee, from 2016 to 2018; and the Committee for Scientific Activities of the Institute, from 2019 to 2022.

Prof. Wieslawa Lesniak has been associated with the Nencki Institute since 1982. She is the author of outstanding publications devoted to the research of calcium-binding proteins. From 2015 to 2022, she was the Secretary of the Warsaw Branch of the Polish Biochemical Society. Since 2012, Professor Lesniak was actively involved in the Scientific Council of the Institute as a member of the Scholarship Committee.