According to Time, Morawska "stands out among her peers for her work in recognizing the importance of aerosol transmission" in spreading SARS-CoV-2.
"In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists overestimated the potential for contaminated surfaces to spread the virus, and we underestimated how far the aerosol particles that people exhaled could travel and remain infectious," the magazine said.
It added that Morawska's advocacy "helped change practices everywhere from schools to workplaces, making these environments safer for more people around the world.”
Born in 1952, Morawska studied physics and earned a doctorate from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, southern Poland.
She is currently Distinguished Professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Morawska assembled and led a multidisciplinary group of more than 230 scientists guiding public health authorities worldwide to recognise the significance of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus-laden particles and the risk it poses to human health.
A long-standing collaborator and advisor to the World Health Organization, she has won numerous distinctions for outstanding scientific achievements.
Morawska is the daughter of the famous Polish sailor Henryk Jaskuła, who died last year at the age of 96.
He was the first Pole to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly without calling at a port.
(mk/gs)