The organizational activity of A. Sładkowski began in his student days. From 1975 to 1977 he organized the Sunday school of mathematics (circle) for schoolchildren of high classes of Secondary School number 74 (Dnepropetrovsk) where were conducted lessons consistent with the broadened program of mathematics courses in collaboration with other students of the Dnepropetrovsk State University (DSU).

In the last year of study at university, he was elected the steward of the student group and as such he was the organizer of all necessary events in the course of the last year of university life.

He conducted active organizational and community work during studies in the postgraduate courses (1978-1981) at the Department of Applied Theory of Elasticity of DSU.

During his work in the Diagnostic Branch Laboratory of Holography of DSU, he became the head of the research sector and organized the work for further automatic decoding of holographic interferograms. He was the main executive in charge of research work to develop a powerful source for continuous coherence radiation (laser), which was carried out jointly with the Institute of Automation and Electrometry, Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

While working at the Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute (DMetI now NMetAU) he was the main executive of 12 research budget and contract works, which were carried out by order of the Ministry of Railways of the USSR, of a number of factories and mining complexes.

In 1992 he organized and headed the small business enterprise "Zhekor", which carried out repair of profiled milling cutters for recovering the working surfaces of the locomotive wheels for machines KZh-20 of different modifications. This company has also produced copiers, templates, and contra templates for turning the wheels of wagons and locomotives in the different wheel-turning machines.

In 2003-2005 prof. A. Sładkowski was the supervisor of studies of the big research work by budget entitled "Analytical and experimental verification of the numerical strength calculations for parts of a drive of rail rolling stock (taking into account international standards and railway instructions)". For its successful implementation was needed the agreed work of 14 employees of the two faculties of the Silesian Technical University (SUT).

Prof. A. Sładkowski had the position of head of the Department of Logistics and Industrial Transportation, for which he was elected in 2009. This work requires significant organizational effort from prof. A. Sładkowski. Thanks to the coordinated work of the staff of the department, as well as interaction with the leadership of the Faculty, was able to significantly improve the financial performance of the department. Under the guidance of A. Sładkowski executed a whole number of contractual works and made (expert) examinations. In 2013, he was re-elected to a new term (next four years). In 2017, in connection with the fusion of departments prof. A. Sladkowski was elected to the position of head of the Department of Logistics and Aviation Technologies. In the years 2018-2020, he was the head of the Department of Logistics and Transport Technologies.

Another aspect of organizational activity prof. A. Sładkowski is international cooperation. He has wide international contacts and knows 4 languages, so his appointment in 2007 to the position of Assoc. Dean for International Cooperation was understandable for most faculty staff. His organizational achievements in this position speak for itself. Before the appointment of prof. Sładkowski the Faculty had no agreements within the framework of ERASMUS, and now on the initiative of the Faculty of Transport, the Silesian Technical University has signed over 30 agreements in the framework of this program.

A list of universities, which have signed an agreement on cooperation in the framework of the ERASMUS program is given in the Section of this website «International cooperation». Prof. A. Sładkowski coordinates the exchange of students and staff within the framework of this program in the Faculty of Transport as Departmental Coordinator of the ERASMUS+ program and also as Coordinator for International Relations.

Faculty of Transport is involved with another European program TEMPUS IV, within the bounds of this program are executing two scientific-pedagogical projects: CITISET and GREENMA. Prof. A. Sładkowski was the coordinator of these projects from the Polish side. In particular, the CITISET project aimed to develop master's and doctoral (postgraduate) programs on Intelligent Transport Systems. Apart from the Silesian University of Technology in this project from the EU side took part University of Southampton (England), Linköping University (Sweden), Transport and Telecommunication Institute (Latvia). The Russian side was represented by Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation (project coordinator), Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, Samara State Technical University, Murmansk State Technical University, and JSC "Russian Institute of Radionavigation and Time". Ukraine in the project was represented by National Aerospace University "Kharkiv Aviation Institute", Odesa National Maritime University, Dnepropetrovsk National University of Railway Transport, and Zhytomyr State Technological University.

Another similar project GREENMA was dedicated to learning throughout life and graduate programs in the field of innovative technologies in the field of energy-saving and environmental control in the Russian universities with employers. It involved 10 Russian universities. We list only their cities: Tambov, Voronezh, Stavropol, Vladikavkaz, Moscow, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, and Perm. EU in the project was represented besides SUT the Universities of Genoa (project coordinator), London, and Alicante.

Later, the TEMPUS program became part of the ERASMUS+ program. In the frame of this program, in 2017-2021 the faculty under the guidance of prof. A. Sładkowski is implementing the project “Master in Smart Transport and Logistics for Cities” (SmaLog). The project involves two universities from Rome (University of Rome Tor Vergata - project coordinator), universities from Wismar (Germany), Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Odesa (Ukraine), Tbilisi, Batumi (Georgia).

From 2011 till 2014 Faculty of Transport SUT (prof. A. Sładkowski was the coordinator from the Polish side) participated in the project TransLog4ComAd, which was carried out in the framework of the program CEEPUS. The title of the project sounded like "Traffic, Transportation and Logistics Development for Achieving Sustainable Competitive Advantage". This target may be attained by using the exchange of scientific and pedagogical experience of the Central European countries. In this project, in addition to SUT attended universities and faculties from Novi Sad (Serbia, project coordinator), Pardubice (Czech Republic), Maribor, Portorož, Ljubljana (Slovenia), Žilina (Slovakia), Bucharest (Romania), Bitola (Macedonia), Sarajevo (Bosnia).

In 2017-2022, a similar project „Fostering sustainable partnership between academia and industry in improving applicability of logistics thinking” (FINALIST) is being implemented. The project involves also universities from Novi Sad (Serbia, project coordinator), Belgrade (Serbia), Budapest (Hungary), Gdansk (Poland), Ljubljana, Portoroz (Slovenia), Rijeka (Croatia), Bitola (Macedonia), Košice (Slovakia), Timisoara (Romania), Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic), etc.

In the years 2018-2022, a similar project "Autonomous Vehicles Universities" (AutoAuto) is carried out, where prof. A. Sładkowski. The project involves universities from Graz (Austria), Sofia (Bulgaria), Zagreb (Croatia), Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Podgorica (Montenegro), Skopje (Macedonia), Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Novi Sad (Serbia), Maribor and Ljubljana (Slovenia), Kosice (Slovakia) and others.

Prof. A. Sładkowski initiated the conclusion of several agreements on academic cooperation between the SUT and universities in other countries (mostly not members of the EU). They are listed in the section of international cooperation. As part of these contracts are exchanged by students and teachers, are developing joint research projects. In the short term will be the implementation of double degree programs. Prof. A. Sładkowski oversees these projects from the side of SUT.

Articles [190, 199, 245, 271, 311] allow one to acquaint oneself with the international cooperation in the Faculty of Transport SUT which is organized and coordinated by prof. A. Sładkowski.

A certain part of international cooperation is always participation in international conferences and their organization. Some experience in organizing conferences on a national level A. Sładkowski was acquired in 1981 when he worked at the Dnepropetrovsk State University. He participated in the organization of the two All-Union Conferences "Influence of Medium on the Interaction of Solid Bodies during Friction" and "Mixed Problems of Solid Mechanics". This experience came in handy in 2002 when as a scientific secretary he organized the International Scientific Conference "Railway wheelsets. Design. Manufacturing. Operation. Repair" [117].

In 2008 prof. A. Sładkowski assumed the duties of Chairman of the International Scientific Committee of the VIII International Conference "Telematics, Logistics and Transport Safety." This conference was organized by the three departments of the Faculty of Transport SUT in Cieszyn [186].

Hereinafter, with the aim of bringing together efforts of all departments for organizing the integrated faculty conference A. Sładkowski organized the cyclic conference entitled "Transport Problems". The tradition of these conferences is that the conference opens on the faculty, and later, all participants remove to interesting places in South Poland. Thus, the basic part of the first conference (2009) held in Kroczyce, the second conference (2010) held in Kraków, the third conference (2011) in Tarnowskie Góry, fourth (2012) in the resort village Ślemień, fifth (2013) in the Masłów village near the Kielce, the sixth (2014) in the village of Zawada Pilicka on Kraków-Częstochowa upland, the seventh (2015) in Opole, the eighth (2016) in Wałbrzych, the ninth (2017) in Sulejów, tenth (2018) in Wisła, eleventh (2019) in Bochnia. The last two editions of the conference (2020, and 2021) took place remotely (online), which was caused by a pandemic situation. The tradition of the conference is that the head of the organizing committee of the conference is constantly changing so that young employees can receive organizational experience. In this case, prof. A. Sładkowski heads the International Scientific Committee and performs the function of the conference coordinator.

Several years ago, young scientists proposed to extend the format of the conference so that organize in the same time a symposium of young scientists and specialists. Prof. A. Sładkowski supported this idea. The above-mentioned symposium precedes the conference currently and it takes place under the same name "Transport Problems".

The interest of scientists and experts from around the world for this conference is growing year after year. For example, in the ninth conference, and in the sixth symposium attended than 250 representatives of science, education, and industry from 21 countries.

Extensive experience prof. A. Sładkowski in organizing conferences appreciated in Poland and in the world. Not surprisingly, therefore, he is a member of more than 30 programs, scientific, and organizing committees of various conferences. For example, in 2014-2019, together with his colleagues from Tbilisi and Kutaisi, as co-chairman, he organized 5 editions of the Polish-Georgian scientific and technical conference "Transport Bridge Europe - Asia" [281, 318]. In the difficult conditions of the pandemic in 2021, together with his Azerbaijani colleagues, as co-chairman, he organized in Baku International Conference on Problems of Logistics, Management, and Operation in the East-West Transport Corridor, in which scientists from 16 countries participated.

Another focus of organizational activity prof. A. Sładkowski is his work as an editor. The first experience of such work became a monothematic monograph [163], when writing succeeded in uniting the efforts of scientists from Poland, Russia, Britain, Ukraine, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, and South Africa. Later published 3 more similar monographs edited by prof. A. Sładkowski [231, 260, 262], which united scientists and experts from around the world also. This experience was used in cooperation with the Springer Publishing House, where five monographs [302, 303, 322, 323] were published.

Perhaps the above was the reason that when the question of the reorganization of the main edition of the Faculty of Transport appeared on the agenda, the Faculty Council adopted the candidate of prof. A. Sładkowski as editor-in-chief. Since 2007 A. Sładkowski headed the journal «Transport Problems», in fact, he created and brought it to a level where it is included in more than 240 databases of the leading libraries in the world, including in a number of scientometric databases such as SCOPUS, WoS, Index Copernicus, RISC, etc. It is obvious that the work on the journal requires the coordinated organization activities of the editorial board and the program committee, which would be impossible without the cooperation and support of the management of the faculty.

It should be noted that there is nothing surprising in the fact that the journal, conferences, and symposiums have the same name «Transport Problems». This activity has a common platform - Faculty of Transport SUT has a common goal - popularization of the achievements of science and the scope for discussion of issues of interest. It is obvious that one or two articles may be sent directly to the editor of the journal. However, we recommend to authors, in our opinion, a more correct approach for the placement of articles in the journal. We suggest that at first, authors should make the presentation at the conference or symposium, pass an initial screening and review by the scientific committee of the conference (symposium), publish own report as a preprint, take into account the criticisms of the participants of the conference (symposium), and then the improved version of the article after its further correction and after positive reviewing will be printed in the journal.

The advantage of such of an approach for the participants of the conference or symposium is obvious. Firstly, the priority of the results of the research will be ensured by publication in the conference (symposium) proceedings [184, 193, 200, 221, 250, 266, 273, 299, 312, 327], which are published under the editorship of prof. A. Sładkowski; secondly, the editorial tries to provide participants the priority reviewing in the journal. The principles of operation of this "mechanism" (conference - symposium - journal) are presented in the papers [206, 227, 294, 316, 317, 319].

For his organizational activities prof. A. Sładkowski repeatedly received the award of Rector of the Silesian University of Technology (2008, II degrees; 2010, III degrees; 2013, I degrees; 2017, I degrees; 2019, III degrees; 2021, III degrees; 2024, III degrees).

In May 2021, the Rector of the Silesian University of Technology appointed prof. A. Sładkowski to perform the function of the Rector's Plenipotentiary for Cooperation with the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

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