From 1956 to 2004 Bystrek was an academic teacher at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. In 1958 he became a senior assistant. He supplemented the teaching staff at the Evening Primary School for Working in Lublin. In 1965 he became an assistant professor at the Department of Systematics and Geography of Plants, and in 1977 he was
habilitated. In 1991 he was awarded the title of Professor. Bystrek was a co-author of the "Biology" postgraduate studies program and the head of these studies at the Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences, UMCS (1980–2004). He also co-created postgraduate studies "Nature" in Lublin,
Przemyśl, and
Biłgoraj. From 1992 to 2005, he was the head of the Department of Botany (Institute of Biology) at the University of Bialystok. He was also an academic teacher at the branch of the University of Warsaw in
Białystok (1986–1977), at the
University of Białystok and at the School of Humanities and Natural Sciences in Sandomierz (1998–2000). He was involved in popularizing knowledge about nature and ecological education. From 1965 he cooperated with Provincial Teachers' Training Centers in Lublin, where he gave lectures and chaired examination committees (from 1984 chairman of the 1st and 2nd degree specialization committee in Lublin, in 1995–1999 in Zamość). In the period 1997–2004 at the TWP, the Regional Center for Teacher Training and School Leadership conducted field classes with biology teachers: Polish National Parks and their role in ecological and environmental education. He also organized meetings with teachers and students of schools. As an academic teacher, he conducted classes in
plant morphology and
systematics, biogeography, biological aspects of
environmental protection, flower biology and flowering ecology, lichenology,
mycology, and Polish geography. He also organized field activities in the following areas:
Carpathians,
Sudetes, the
Baltic region, the
Suwałki region,
Warmia and
Masuria,
Białowieża Primeval Forest, Lublin region, and the
Świętokrzyskie Mountains. He was a long-term tutor of the year, a member of the Examination Board for the first year of full-time and extramural studies and an examiner. From 1977, he was chairman of the University Social Commission of UMCS, head of the Sanitary and Medical Service of Civil Defense of UMCS, and chairman of the Assistant Hotel Committee. He was a supervisor of 5 doctors, and conducted several reviews of the scientific achievements of candidates for the title of professor, habilitation doctor, doctor, as well as over 300 graduate students in full-time studies, extramural studies and postgraduate studies at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and the University of Białystok. In 1978 Bystrek became one of the co-founders of the mycological and lichenological section of the . Jan Bystrek died on 20 February 2020. ==Scientific memberships==