The new premises of the Alfred Jahn Centre for Research on Cold Regions have been opened at Wrocław University Library. Headed by Professor Mateusz Strzelecki, the Centre is an interdisciplinary unit operating within the organisational structure of the Institute of Geography and Regional Development at the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Environmental Management of the University of Wrocław.

The Centre’s mission will develop research on environmental changes occurring in cold regions, with particular emphasis on permafrost, periglacial and paraglacial environments. The Centre also takes care of and defines the directions of research carried out at the Stanislaw Baranowski Polar Station on Spitsbergen.

In the new location, researchers of cold regions will find not only seminar rooms and open space for young scientists, as well as storage for scientific apparatus, office space for visiting scientists and a library to which the most valuable books on polar and periglacial topics from the collection of Professor Alfred Jahn will be transferred.

An important aim of the Centre is to promote and preserve the scientific heritage of its patron. Alfred Jahn was an eminent Polish geographer and polar explorer and the legendary rector of Wrocław University, who sided with the striking students during the demonstrations in March 1968, exposing himself to repression by the communist authorities.

Professor Strzelecki’s ambition is to use the new premises to bring together science and art inspired by cold regions. The first result of such collaboration is a mural by Sebastian Bozek depicting Prof. Jahn and elements of the landscapes and natural processes that are being studied by the Centre’s collaborators, including permafrost, sea-facing glaciers, icebergs, snow cover and tundra geoecosystems.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński