Ana was a panellist at The Anthropocene Conference of the Max Planck Institute of GeoAnthropology
Sequeira Lab lead Assoc Prof Ana Sequeira has just arrived back from a trip to Germany, where she was an invited panelist at the Crossing Boundaries in Science 2024: The Anthropocene conference.
20 August 2024 (written by Priscilla Seah)
Sequeira Lab lead Assoc Prof Ana Sequeira has just arrived back from a fruitful trip to Europe, where she was a speaker at a Discussion Panel for the Crossing Boundaries in Science 2024 – The Anthropocene conference in Jena, Germany. The conference was organised by the new Max Planck Institute of GeoAnthropology Directors: Professor Dr Ricarda Winkelmann and Professor Jürgen Renn and a collaboration with the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (the Leopoldina), which is one of the oldest continuously existing learned academies globally, since 1652.
Geoanthropology is an emerging interdisciplinary field that combines both geology and anthropology to investigate the impacts human activities have had on the Earth’s systems. It seeks to understand how human societies and activities have influenced and been shaped by the Earth’s physical environment, in order to gain insights into the long-term consequences that human actions have on the planet. Ana's panel discussed major topics, including: (i) the need to also consider 'oceanthropology', (ii) how an unregulated blue economy can be a major threat to the oceans (and therefore to the whole Earth system), and (iii) the need to change what it means to be human in relation to nature.
The conference was a particularly special event for two main reasons. First, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot (implemented by Dr Jochen Büttner) was used to synthesise the collective publications of the presenters providing a unique opportunity to explore the intersection of technology and the emerging field of geoanthropology. Second, the essence of the conference was captured in the great graphical recording pictured below. This incredible work was done by the illustrator Thomas Wieland who beautifully summarised key discussion points, transforming complex ideas into visually engaging representations!
It was an incredibly insightful conference and provided an invaluable opportunity for Ana to connect with various researchers from multiple disciplines!
A big thank you to Profs Ricarda Winkelmann and Jürgen Renn for their kind invitation!
