About us

The staff of the Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation of Adam Mickiewicz University (IG&G AMU) is an interdisciplinary team of researchers studying the evolution and dynamics of the geographical environment in the Quaternary. The scientific activity of the staff goes in two closely related directions:

  • reconstruction, on the basis of deposits and landforms, of the state and transformations of the geographical environment in the Quaternary, and
  • studies of the structure and dynamics of present-day geoecosystems as a basis for a reconstruction of their past and a forecast of their change.
 

The research conducted by teams of IG&G workers focuses traditionally on North-Western Poland, especially Wielkopolska, West Pomerania, and Lubuska Land. Apart from this, studies have been carried out for years in the polar and subpolar zones of the northern and southern hemispheres (Spitsbergen, the South Shetlands). They offer an insight into the mechanisms and dynamics of processes shaping Poland's environment during the Quaternary, especially glacial-interglacial cycles.

The Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation was established in 1981 as one of three units set up in a new Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences. Until 1999 it was called the Institute of Quaternary Research, then the name was extended to the Institute of Quaternary Research and Geoecology. The Institute assumed its present name in 2004. Its first director was Prof. Wojciech Stankowski in the years 1981-1984, next in the years 1984-2008 - Prof. Andrzej Kostrzewski. Currently this function is performed by Prof. Leszek Kasprzak.

Since its establishment, there have been 51 people in the Institute granted the degree of a doctor of geography. Over the last 25 years, nine current or former staff members have earned the scientific title of a 'habilitated doctor'. One further 'habilitation' procedures are now in progress.