We are honoured to announce that dr hab. Wiesław Trela from the Świętokrzyskie Branch of the Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute has been appointed as professor of exact and natural sciences in the discipline of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Mr Trela received the title by virtue of a decision of the President of the Republic of Poland dated 27 June 2024. The nomination ceremony will take place at a later date.

Wiesław Trela graduated from the Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences of the Jagiellonian University, where in 1992 he received the degree of Master of Science in geology with stratigraphic and prospecting specialisation. In 2003, the Scientific Council of the Polish Geological Institute conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Earth Sciences in the field of geology, on the basis of his PhD thesis entitled ‘Sedimentary environments of the Ordovician in the Kielce region of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains’, written under the supervision of Professor Krzysztof Jaworowski. In 2011, Wiesław Trela was awarded a postdoctoral degree (dr hab.) in Earth sciences on the basis of a dissertation entitled ‘Ordovician sedimentation record in the Łysogóry Świętokrzyskie region against the background of sea level changes recorded on the Baltic palaeocontinent’.

In 1994, Wiesław Trela started his work at Świętokrzyskie Branch of PGI in Kielce as a junior specialist where he was engaged in geological cartography during preparation of Detailed Geological Map of Poland in the scale 1 : 50,000, as well as conducted studies on local Ordovician formations in the Świętokrzyskie Mts. During his 30-year work at the Świętokrzyskie Branch of PGI he was holding managerial positions: from 2006 to 2010 he was the Deputy Director of the Branch for Scientific Affairs, and from 2010 to 2014 he was the Director of the Świętokrzyskie Branch. In the years 2012-2015, he was a plenipotentiary of the Director of PGI-NRI for management of matters related to implementation of EU projects from the 2007-2013 - Regional Programme for Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which concerned improvement of infrastructure of the Świętokrzyskie Branch in connection with activities carried out within the framework of regional scientific research and tasks of the Polish Geological and Hydrogeological Survey.

The main field of Prof. Wiesław Trela's scientific activity is regional geology of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, especially the stratigraphy and facies characteristics of the Ordovician architecture. His most important achievements are concentrated around three main issues concerning:

• reconstruction of the facial architecture, lithostratigraphy and deposition environments of the Ordovician, Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mts, against the background of climatic-eustatic changes with respect to stable carbon and oxygen isotope signatures and early-diagenetic iron-phosphate autogenesis,
• deposition environment of the Świętokrzyskie Silurian graptolite schists,
• volcanic activity in the Ordovician and Silurian sedimentary record, including conditions of volcanic ash deposition, tectogenesis of K-bentonites and contribution of atmospheric circulation to redistribution of fine-grained pyroclastic material.

Prof. Wiesław Trela is the author or co-author of 80 scientific and popular science publications, including 21 papers published in journals from the Journal Citation Reports list. His scientific output also includes 5 scientific monographs (including two Detailed Geological Maps of Poland (DGMP) on a scale of 1 : 50,000 with explanatory notes) and popular science monographs, as well as 5 chapters in monographic publications. Prof Wieslaw Trela's publication record includes multi-author articles published in Science (Galili et al., 2019; The geologic history of sweater oxygen isotopes from marine oxides), Geology (Zhang et al., 2011; Major oceanic redox condition change correlated with the rebound of marine animal diversity during the Late Ordovician) and New Phytologists (Salomon et al., 2018; Putative Late Ordovician land plants).

Prof. Trela was the head of two research projects funded by the National Science Centre and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, as well as the main executor of a promoter grant from the State Committee for Scientific Research. During his scientific career, Prof. Wieslaw Trela has been a member of the organising committees of ten national and international scientific conferences, including as chairman of the GeoShale 2014 international conference. He has presented the results of his research in the form of papers and posters at 23 international and national conferences. He has also led geological tours in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains during international conferences held in Poland. He has reviewed twelve scientific and informative papers for geological journals such as 3XPalaeo, Geologica Carpatica, Geological Quarterly, Sedimentary Geology, Przegląd Geologiczny i Prace PIG (Polish Geological Review and Works of PGI).

Prof Wiesław Trela's Hirsch index in the Web of Science database is 11, in the Scopus database 14 and in Google Scholar 15.

Prof. Wiesław Trela was the promoter of one doctoral student and six bachelor theses at the engineering geology department of the Kielce University of Technology, and currently supervises the research of a doctoral student at the GeoPlanet Doctoral School. In addition, he participated in the work of five doctoral commissions appointed by the Scientific Council of PGI-NRI, including as chairman of one of them.

An important part of Prof. Trela's scientific activity was also popularisation efforts related to the dissemination of geological research, including the development of information boards and geotourism guides.

For his professional achievements, Prof. Trela was awarded the Honourable Medal of the Minister of the Environment ‘Meritorious for Polish Geology’ and the Golden Badge of the Polish Geological Institute. He was four times awarded with special prizes by the Director of PGI-NRI. He also received a distinction in the competition of the Minister of the Environment ‘Geology 2019’ in the category of achievements, fundamental discovery, (resulting from his own creative scientific and research work) for the multi-author publication ‘Putative Late Ordovician land plants’, published in New Phytologists.

Prof. Wieslaw Trela served as Editor-in-Chief of the Geological Review (Przegląd Geologiczny) from December 2019 to November 2023 and was a member of the Scientific Council of PIG-NRI from December 2019 to September 2021. He is a member of the Polish Geological Society (PTGeol) and since 2021 a member of the Board of the Świętokrzyskie Branch of PTGeol.

Wiesław Trela ​​at the beginning of his work in the Świętokrzyskie Branch (1996)

Wiesław Trela ​​after 28 years of work in the Świętokrzyskie Branch (2024)