the 11th PTNCE Conference
22 – 25 September 2025, Wrocław, Poland
Mark Thomas (Department of Genetics Environment and Evolution, University College London)
Professor Mark Thomas is an internationally recognized evolutionary geneticist and a world-leading expert in applying computational models to the distribution of genetic and cultural variation in human populations.
Thomas is notable for many scientific publications in human demographic and evolutionary history inference, molecular phylogenetics of extinct species using ancient DNA, cultural evolutionary modeling, and molecular biology. His work includes several significant discoveries including the first DNA sequencing of mammoth DNA, the first direct (i.e. ancient DNA) evidence that early European farmers have not descended directly from indigenous hunter-gatherers, providing the first evidence that lactase persistence evolved independently in Africa and Europe and was absent in early European farmers and many others.
Piotr Sorokowski (Department of Experimental Social Psychology, The Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław)
Piotr Sorokowski is a renowned researcher in cross-cultural, social, and evolutionary psychology, as well as in human ethology, and anthropology. He has conducted extensive field studies on traditional cultures across Africa, the Amazon, Papua, and the Pacific region. His research in nonindustrial societies has focused on the relationship between cultural and individual factors influencing various psychological mechanisms, providing new insights into the interplay between evolution and culture in social and reproductive success. He served as the principal investigator on multiple grant projects that explored the mechanisms of sexual selection, voice perception and analysis, the adaptive functions of romantic love, perceptions of elderly people in indigenous societies, and the evolutionary origins of art.
He has published over 100 research articles, including papers in Nature, Nature Human Behavior, and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The importance of his work is reflected in his inclusion in the top 2% ranking of the most cited researchers by Stanford University and Elsevier for several consecutive years.
The winner of the Profesor Strzałko Award for the outstanding young scientist for 2024
Further information will appear soon…..
