News
Fifth edition of the TSSP NatSci programme
Between July 1 and 28, 2025, five students are completing internships at our Faculty as part of the fifth edition of the TSSP NatSci programme. The internship programme is developed and coordinated by Professor Wojciech Kujawski from the Faculty of Chemistry and Dr. hab. Przemysław Charzyński, NCU Professor, supported by dr habil. Beata Kaczmarek-Szczepańska with financial matters handled by Ms. Karolina Rasak from our Dean's Office.
A total of 16 students are participating in the programme, including 15 from foreign universities and 1 from NCU. Altogether, 15 scientific projects in the fields of chemistry, geography, and biology are being carried out, 6 of which are hosted at the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management:
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Veronika Suslovets, a student from Zhytomyr Polytechnic (Ukraine), is conducting a project in the Department of Soil Science and Landscape Ecology entitled: Transport heritage: exploring architecture, design, and tourism potential. The project supervisor is Dr. hab. Przemysław Charzyński, NCU Professor.
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In the Department of Geoinformation and Environmental Remote Sensing, two interns are working on scientific projects:
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Ciara Heaney, a third-year undergraduate student in GeoSciences from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), is working on the project Changes in land use/cover in national parks in Poland.
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Sara Melgarelo, a first-year master's student in Geoinformation from the University of Twente (Netherlands), is conducting a project entitled Analysis of light pollution in Toruń, with particular attention to the NCU Campus.
The academic supervisor for both projects is Dr. hab. Mieczysław Kunz, NCU Professor, and Dr. Eng. Dominika Daab additionally supervises the second project.
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In the Department of Hydrology, Cryology and Water Management, two students from the University of Bucharest (Romania) are conducting research projects:
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The first, entitled Assessment of the quantitative and qualitative resources of small water reservoirs in the city of Toruń in the context of climate change, is being carried out by Anastasia Nicea. The project was prepared by Dr. Katarzyna Kubiak-Wójcicka in cooperation with Dr. Adam Solarczyk from the Environmental Analysis Laboratory. Anastasia collects water samples from selected reservoirs in Toruń and performs analyses of selected physicochemical parameters under the scientific supervision of Dr. Adam Solarczyk.
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The second project, Revitalisation of riverside areas and their impact on tourism development, is conducted by Miruna-Maria Cristea under the supervision of Dr. Katarzyna Kubiak-Wójcicka. Miruna-Maria focuses on revitalisation processes and their impact on tourism development, with a particular emphasis on water tourism. The research is being carried out in Toruń and Bydgoszcz, with an initial focus on assessing the needs of water-based tourism and the condition of inland waterways.
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Kateryna Shykhnenko, a student from Zhytomyr Polytechnic (Ukraine), is conducting a project in the Department of Geomorphology and Paleogeography on geotourism in salt-rich areas under the working title Stepping on the salt. The project is supervised by Dr. habil. Tomasz Karasiewicz, NCU Professor.
As part of the programme, the interns attend Thursday lectures delivered by faculty from three departments, held in the Prof. Rajmund Galon Auditorium. Presentations from our Faculty include:
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World Cultural Map by P. Charzyński
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How humans scalp the Earth – the impact of soil degradation on migrations by M. Świtoniak
As part of the cultural programme, the interns have visited Toruń, including the Museum of Gingerbread, and will take part in a workshop titled: Environmental, biological, chemical and enotouristic aspects of viticulture at the ‘Przy Talerzyku’ vineyard in Topolno, Lower Vistula Valley.
Know Your Landscape, Know Your Soils – Geopedological Workshop
From 30 June to 4 July 2025, the field component of the international intensive course “Know Your Landscape, Know Your Soils – Geopedological Workshop” took place in Slovenia. The event was organized as part of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) by the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts.
Scientific visit of Dr. habil. Marek Kejna to Tashkent within the Erasmus+ KA171 programme
Between June 16–20, 2025, Dr. habil. Marek Kejna, Associate Professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, visited the Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers, a subunit of the National Research University (TIIAME) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, within the framework of the Erasmus+ KA 171 programme. The visit served as an extension of existing cooperation between Soil Science and Landscape Ecology Department of our Faculty and the university in Tashkent. The current objective was to initiate joint research on the impacts of climate change in Poland and Central Asia.
Uzbekistan is among the countries with limited water resources, which are largely dependent on atmospheric precipitation and the melting of glaciers in the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alay mountains in the southern part of the country. Ongoing global warming poses a significant threat to the country's economy, particularly to agriculture, which relies heavily on irrigation systems.
During the visit, Prof. M. Kejna met with the deputy director of the Institute - DSc Jamoliddin Razzokov, and with the Head of the Laboratory for Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Production, Dr. Mukhiddin Juliev. A key part of the visit included lectures delivered to the Institute's staff and PhD students, addressing climate change, its consequences, and strategies for mitigating warming and adapting to new environmental conditions. One of the lectures was also devoted to presenting Poland's natural environment, history, and cultural heritage.
The Uzbek scientists showcased the functioning of the capital city of Tashkent (with a population exceeding 3 million) in the context of a hot, arid, subtropical climate.
Mohamed-Sadek Mesiss research internship
Mohamed-Sadek Messis, a PhD student from the University of Constantine 1 Frères Mentouri in Algeria, completed a research internship at the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń from September 23 to December 20, 2024. The stay was financed under the Erasmus + program.
During the internship, Mohamed-Sadek Messis continued working on his doctoral dissertation, which was related to the course of meteorological and hydrological droughts in the Cheliff River Basin in Algeria. In cooperation with Dr. Katarzyna Kubiak-Wójcicka, the internship supervisor, M-S. Messis characterized the occurrence of meteorological and hydrological droughts and their mutual relations in the upper Cheliff River Basin using various indicators and new research methods. The results of the joint analyses were presented by the intern at a scientific conference organized by Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz on December 10, 2024. A visible result of the collaboration is the publication of a joint scientific article in the international journal Climate Impact Factor 3.0. The co-authors of the scientific article, in addition to the trainee and his supervisor, are the thesis supervisors Prof Azeddine Mebarki and Dr Abdelaaziz Merabti.
In addition to his scientific activities, Mohamed-Sadek Messis actively participated in the life of the faculty. He took part in various meetings organized at the faculty, including participating in the defense of Babak Ghazi's doctoral thesis, meeting with students of the Hydrology Scientific Club, conducting classes for students of engineering studies in the field of spatial management and bachelor's studies in the field of tourism and recreation. His lectures on environmental conditions and tourist attractions in Algeria enjoyed great interest among students. In the near future, further cooperation with Mohamed-Sadek Messis is planned in the field of common research interests in the broad sense of water resources and their variability in different regions of the world.
M-S Messis' participation in the project resulted in the establishment of long-term cooperation not only with the doctoral student himself, but also with other employees of the Constantine 1 Frères Mentouri University and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
We encourage other people from different regions of the world to participate in the Erasmus+ program.
Open lecture by Professor Helena Alexanderson
We cordially invite you to an open lecture by Professor Helena Alexanderson (Faculty of Geology, Lund University, Sweden) entitled: "The Scandinavian Ice Sheet during MIS 3 - a sedimentological journey through Sweden, with a detour into Norway", organized as part of the project "International partnerships with leading research institutions (IDUB)" and this year's International Geomorphology Week. The lecture will be held hybridly, as part of the Scientific Meeting of the Faculty of Geomorphology Earth and Spatial Management (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń), on March 6, 2025 at 11.30 in Auditorium III (Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, ul. Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toruń).
Link to the lecture in the application TEAMS
Rules for participating in an online lecture:
- joining the meeting in the TEAMS application no later than 5 minutes before the start of the meeting,
- during the presentation the microphones and cameras of the audience should be turned off,
- questions to the speaker can be asked after the presentation. To do this, you should signal your desire to ask a question by raising your virtual hand and after the moderator gives the floor, turn on the microphone and camera and ask a question.
Helena Alexanderson is a professor at Department of Geology, Lund University, Sweden. As a Quaternary geologist she uses geological archives such as sediment, stratigraphies and landforms to reconstruct the ice age environments and use dating methods such as luminescence dating to find out when different events took place. Her main current research projects concern glacial history and ice age environments in northern Sweden and on Svalbard, and aeolian sand, wind activity and storm surges in Sweden. As head of the Lund Luminescence Laboratory she also does research within luminescence dating and is collaborator in several projects from around the world that use luminescence dating.
Scientific awards and promotions at the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management
On February 17-19, 2023, the main celebrations related to the 80th anniversary of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń took place. These events were an opportunity to honour distinguished employees of the university and to promote scientific research, which emphasizes the high level of research conducted at the university.
On 17 February, the ceremony of awarding medals for many years of service and the Medals of the National Education Commission took place. Among the awarded were employees of our faculty:
- The Silver Medal for Long Service was awarded to Dr. Mirosław Biczkowski,
- The Bronze Medal for Long Service was awarded to Krzysztof Rogatka, PhD, DSc, Eng., Professor of the Nicolaus Copernicus University,
- The Medal of the National Education Commission was presented to Professor Marek Kejna, PhD.
The culmination of the celebrations was the ceremony that took place on February 19 in the NCU Auditorium. During the ceremony, Czesław Adamiak was awarded the title of habilitated doctor in the field of Social Sciences, the discipline of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management.
During the same ceremony, the doctoral promotion of new doctors in the discipline of Earth and Environmental Sciences, who defended their doctoral dissertations in the past year, also took place. The promoted doctors and their supervisors are:
- Aleksander Adamczyk, PhD, supervisor: Prof. Wojciech Wysota, PhD, DSc,
- Joanna Michalak-Bielska, PhD, supervisor: Michał Jankowski, PhD, DSc, Associate Professor,
- Babak Ghazi, PhD, supervisor: Prof. Rajmund Przybylak,
- Sławomir Sulik, PhD, supervisor: Marek Kejna, PhD, DSc, Associate Professor.
Congratulations!
photo: Andrzej Romański and Aleksandra Pospieszyńska
TSSP NatSci 2025 - Toruń Students Summer Program in Natural Sciences
Faculty of Biological and Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, and Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, are pleased to welcome applications for the 2024 edition of the TSSP NatSci program. TSSP NatSci is an opportunity for students interested in Natural Sciences to lead a 4-week-long summer research project in one of the following areas (the list is not exhaustive):
- biochemistry
- biotechnology
- chemical sciences
- Earth sciences
- environmental protection
- geography
- tourism
Program
The main component of the summer program is an active participation in the implementation of selected research projects offered by the staff members of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń from Faculty of Biological and Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, and Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management, please see the topics and their descriptions below. Interested students are welcome to contact possible advisors for more details concerning the foreseen projects and discuss the dates that the project could be undertaken. The NCU students can join to each project.
Here more details: https://tssp.umk.pl/natsci