The academic community of the University of Silesia and anyone interested in contemporary environmental, urban and civilisational changes are invited to attend two open lectures by a world-class researcher into planetary processes – Prof. Mark Williams from the University of Leicester in the UK.
Programme
29 April 2026, 11.30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
‘Mutualistic Cities of the near future’
University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Humanities, Andrzej Pawlikowski Lecture Hall, ul. ul. Uniwersytecka 4
The lecture will focus on the relationship between cities and the Earth’s system within the context of the concept of the technosphere – a global network of connections between people and technology. The professor will address the question of whether contemporary cities, as key ‘engines’ of the technosphere, can become structures more conducive to ecological balance and the sustainability of life on the planet, or whether the current model of development is leading to a systemic civilisational crisis.
29 April 2026, 1.45 p.m. – 3.15 p.m.
‘The Anthropocene is a major rupture in Earth’s planetary evolution’
University of Silesia in Katowice, Rectorate, Kazimierz Lepszy Lecture Hall, ul. Bankowa 12
The second presentation will focus on the biological and geological consequences of the Anthropocene – an epoch in which human activity has become one of the main factors shaping the functioning of the planet. The professor will present the contemporary ‘fossil record’ of changes caused by humanity and compare it with past turning points in the history of life on Earth, raising questions about the future direction of the biosphere’s evolution.
About the speaker
Prof. Mark Williams is co-chair of the Anthropocene Working Group and an earth scientist specialising in planetary evolution. He is a multidisciplinary geologist and palaeontologist whose interests include landscape evolution, climate change, Earth sciences, and issues at the intersection of science, business, architecture and law. Over the course of more than three decades, his career has taken him from tropical zones to polar regions – he has worked in a wide variety of environments, from the deserts of Central Asia to the icy landscapes of Antarctica. Drawing on these experiences, he studies the history of life on Earth, analysing, amongst other things, fossils, climate change and the evolution of the oceans. He currently focuses on studying changes in the biosphere caused by human activity, in particular the processes of introducing alien species and their impact on ecosystems, as well as the geological record of these changes in sediments. This enables him to compare contemporary, dynamic environmental transformations with past periods of global biospheric disruption. These changes may constitute one of the key defining features of a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene. In the past, mass extinctions were triggered by factors such as asteroid impacts, abrupt climate change or prolonged supervolcanic eruptions. Prof. Williams’ research focuses on how humanity can avoid triggering another mass extinction and avoid joining this list of causes of global biosphere crises. Prof. Williams is a researcher at the Institute for Environmental Futures of the University of Leicester, where he leads research on the Anthropocene. He is also co-director of the palaeontological laboratory at Yunnan University in China and a member of the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution at Leicester. He frequently appears in documentaries and popular science material on the Anthropocene, including articles published in the online journal The Conversation. He is the co-author of numerous popular science books, such as The Goldilocks Planet, Ocean Worlds, Skeletons: The Frame of Life, The Anthropocene: A Multidisciplinary Approach, and his latest, The Cosmic Oasis.
The lectures are open to the public.
We invite everyone interested in contemporary environmental challenges, the future of cities and the evolution of the Earth system.
