Professor Roland Oberhänsli is the new chair of the "Commission for the Geological Map of the World" (CGMW)
Professor Roland Oberhänsli was elected President of one of the oldest geological commissions at the 37th International Geological Congress (IGC) 2024 in Busan, Korea. He is a retired Professor of the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Potsdam. Oberhänsli will lead the Paris-based "Commission for the Geological Map of the World" (CGMW), which had previously been chaired by French colleagues for many years. The commission was founded in 1861 as a European Commission at the 2nd International Congress in Bologna and was later expanded to a global organization in 1913 at its 12th International Congress in Toronto.
Prof Oberhänsli was President of the International Union of Geosciences (IUGS) from 2012 to 2016, with then 96 member states. At that time, together with his colleagues of the Executive Committee, he initiated the “Resourcing Future Generations” program, which, among other things, deals with more sustainable resource management and fairer distribution of revenues from excavation of raw materials and licenses. He also initiated the IUGS science program “Deep-time Digital Earth”, which deals with the collection and handling of large amounts of data from past eras. Until 2024, Oberhänsli also served as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for the 37th International Geological Congress. He was elected to all positions by the respective plenary assemblies as a representative of science and thus also a representative of the University of Potsdam.
