Prof. Adam Izdebski
Contact: humeco@umk.pl
Main Focus
Human Ecology
Environmental History
Disease History
Complex Systems and Resilience Theory
Greek and Roman Antiquity
Middle Ages
Early Modern Europe
Palaeoclimatology
Palaeoecology
aDNA and isotope analysis in historical applications
Curriculum Vitae
2025-present: Full Professor, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Centre for Modern Interdisciplinary Technologies
2025-2026: Visiting Professor and Project Leader, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto, Japan
2018-2025: Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (formerly Science of Human History), Jena, Germany: Max Planck Independent Research Group Leader (W2 position)
2012-2025: Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Institute of History: Assistant/Associate/Full Professor (on leave 2018-2025)
2023-2025: University of Warsaw, Part-time Research Professor and Group Leader, Center for Systemic Risk Analysis
2017-2018: Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton: Member (School of Historical Studies)
Spring 2016: Princeton University, History Department: Visiting Professor in the Council of the Humanities
2015-present: Core team member, Climate Change and History Research Initiative, Princeton University
2011-2012: Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Philosophy and Humanities: Humboldt Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow
Academic Degrees
2023: President of the Republic of Poland / Council of Scientific Excellence: Full Professor of Exact and Natural Sciences (Biological Sciences).
2020: Jagiellonian University in Krakow: Habilitation in History.
2011: University of Warsaw: PhD in History
2008: University of Oxford: MSt in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies
2008: University of Warsaw: MA in Psychology
2007: University of Warsaw: MA in History
Major policy engagement
2025- Member of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission
2022-2023 Co-chair, eklipse Expert Working Group on Biodiversity and Pandemics, answering policy advice request from the DG R&I and DG AGRI of the European Commission
2022-2024 Member, EGU (European Geosciences Union) Biodiversity Task Force, working on science and policy projects (our main consultation for the EU Parliament)
August 2023 Chair and organiser, Science for Policy Programme at the bi-annual conference of the European Society for Environmental History in Bern, Switzerland (incl. a plenary panel)
Spring 2022 Main organiser, Webinar series Environmental History Meets Public Policy, MPI SHH with the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO), Leipzig, King’s College London, Dickinson College, and Princeton University
2021-2024 Founding member and coordinator, International Panel on Environmental History & Policy
Key publications
Monographs & edited volumes
Izdebski A., Ein Vormoderner Staat als Sozioökologisches System: Das Oströmische Reich 300-1300 [= Forschungen zur Geschichte und Kultur des Östlichen Mitteleuropa 59]. Dresden: Sandstein, 2022.
Izdebski A., Filipkowski P., Haldon J. (eds.), Perspectives on public policy in societal-environmental crises. What the future needs from history. [= Risks, Systems, Decisions]. Cham: Springer, 2022.
Izdebski A. & Szmytka R. (ed.), Krakow. Ecobiography. Pittsburgh 2020: Pittsburgh University Press.
Izdebski A. and M. Mulryan (eds.), Environment and Society during the long Late Antiquity, Late Antique Archaeology 11 & 12 (Leiden, 2018), 2 vols.
Gogou A., Holmgren K., Izdebski A. (eds.), Special Issue: Mediterranean Holocene Climate, Environment and Human Societies, Quaternary Science Reviews vol. 136, Springer 2016.
Journal articles & book chapters
Izdebski A., Czerwiński S., Jankowiak M., et al., Unbalanced social–ecologic acceleration led to state formation failure in early medieval Poland. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122 (2025) e2409056122.
Masci L., Liakopoulos G., (…), Izdebski A., Masi A. Consilience in practice: social–ecological dynamics of the Lake Volvi region (Greece) during the last two millennia. Journal of Quaternary Science (2024).
Tian Y., Koncz I., Defant S., (…), Izdebski A., Geary P., Veeramah K.R. The Role of Emerging Elites in the Formation and Development of Communities after the Fall of the Roman Empire. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (2024) e2317868121.
Izdebski A., Guzowski P., et al. Palaeoecological data indicates land-use changes across Europe linked to spatial heterogeneity in mortality during the Black Death pandemic. Nature Ecology and Evolution 6 (2022) 297-306.
Izdebski A., Bloomfield K., et al., L’émergence d’une histoire environnementale interdisciplinaire. Une approche conjointe de l’Holocène tardif / The emergence of interdisciplinary environmental history: bridging the gap between the humanistic and scientific approaches to the Late Holocene, Annales HSS 77/2 (2022) 1-48.
Haldon J., Izdebski A., et al., SDG 13: Climate Action. How Societies Succeeded or Failed to Respond to Environmental Disruption. In: Gorman D., Gutmann M., Before the SDGs. A Historical Companion to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Oxford 2022, Oxford University Press, 385-424.
Dagomar D., Anchukaitis K., Bauch M., Burnham J., Carnegy F., Cui J., de Luna K., Guzowski P., Hambrecht G., Huhtamaa H., Izdebski A., et al. Towards a Rigorous Understanding of Societal Responses to Climate Change. Nature 591 (2021): 539–50.
Zanchetta G., Bini M., Bloomfield K., Izdebski A., et al. Beyond One-Way Determinism: San Frediano’s Miracle and Climate Change in Central and Northern Italy in Late Antiquity, Climatic Change 165 (2021): 25.
Izdebski A., Słoczyński T., Bonnier A., Koloch G., Kouli K., Landscape Change and Trade in Ancient Greece: Evidence from Pollen Data, Economic Journal, 130 (2020): 2596–2618.
Izdebski, A., L. Mordechai, S. White. The Social Burden of Resilience: A Historical Perspective. Human Ecology, 46 (2018) 291-303.
Haldon, J., L. Mordechai, T.P. Newfield, A.F. Chase, A. Izdebski, P. Guzowski, I. Labuhn, N. Roberts. History Meets Palaeoscience: Consilience and Collaboration in Studying Past Societal Responses to Environmental Change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 9 March 2018, 201716912.
Masci L., Liakopoulos G. C., Gromig R., Kolovos E., Kouli K., Moros M., Sadori L., Sarantis A., Slavin P., Sypiański J., Vidras G., Vignola C., Wagner B., Izdebski A., Masi A.. Consilience in practice: social–ecological dynamics of the Lake Volvi region (Greece) during the last two millennia, Journal of Quaternary Science (2024), vol. 40, issue 3: 459-480.