Jerzy Osipiuk graduated from Technical Physics in 1984. He prepared his master's thesis under the supervision of Professor Romuald Skorki from the University of Gdańsk in the field of molecular biology
After graduation, he started to work at the University of Gdańsk. He defended his doctoral dissertation on the protective proteins of Escherichia coli bacteria, under the supervision of Prof. Maciej Żylicz, in 1991. From 1992 to 1993, he completed an internship at the University of California, Berkeley.
From 1993 to the present, he worked at the Argonne National Laboratory in the suburbs of Chicago. By a resolution of the Council of the Faculty of Biology, Geography and Oceanology of the University of Gdańsk in 2003 he received the degree of Doctor of Sciences in biological sciences.
Jurek's specialty is crystallography of biological macromolecules - proteins and nucleic acids. He is the author of more than 300 protein structures in the Protein Data Bank database. He also works on the research line of Advanced Photon Source synchrotron in Argonne.