DELAYED: 11-14 May 2020 – Sedimentary Basin Dynamics and Evolution of their Basin Fill

Due to the novel coronavirus, the event will be postponed.
It will be held at a later date.
Please visit this site later.

Professor Sierd Cloetingh (Utrecht University) and Professor Bilal Haq (Sorbonne University) will offer a four days’ seminarium (11-14 May 2020) at the Geodetic and Geophysical Institute in Sopron, Hungary ( http://ggki.hu/en/intezet/about-the-institute/ ), to be followed by a field trip (15 May). The issues to be addressed by these world-renowned geoscientists include multiscale topics related to the formation and evolution of sedimentary basins and their infill, linking the deep Earth dynamics to surficial processes. Specific lectures will include such subjects as: lithosphere dynamics and basin formation mechanisms; thermomechanical controls on basin deformation and vertical motions; long wave-length dynamics and their influence of topography and bathymetry; mechanisms of accommodation creation and destruction for sedimentary fill; basin fill successions associated with tectonically active phases and periods of tectonic quiescence; sequence-stratigraphic application on passive margins, and more. All topics will be illustrated by case studies from around the world. The seminarium is recommended for both the young and not so young professionals who would like a refresher course on the latest views of leading researchers in this field.

Sierd Cloetingh

Sierd Cloetingh is a Utrecht University Distinguished Professor. His research field is Earth Sciences. He published more than 350 papers in international peer-reviewed journals (Scopus: 14,581 citations, h-index 67) and has been promotor of close to 80 PhD students of 18 different nationalities.
Currently he serves as President of the Academia Europaea and President of the Association for European Cooperation in Science & Technology (COST). Past functions include Membership of the Scientific Council (2009-2015) and Vice-President of the European Research Council (ERC), President of the European Geophysical Society (1998-2000), President of the International Lithosphere Program (ILP), Distinguished Professor of the Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences (KNAW, 2006-2015), Editor-in-Chief of the international journal “Global and Planetary Change” and Chairman of the TOPO-EUROPE collaborative research program.
Sierd Cloetingh received honorary doctorates from five European universities and numerous medals and awards. He is member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, the Royal Norwegian Academy, the Royal Danish Academy, the German national Academy for Technical Sciences (acatech), the Heidelberg Academy, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was distinguished in 2006 as Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur and in 2014 as Knight of the Royal Order of the Netherlands Lion for his contributions to science and European scientific cooperation in research and education.

Bilal Haq

During his long career Professor Haq has worked in the academia, the industry and the government and has been affiliated with the universities of Vienna, Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Copenhagen and Stockholm, and at MIT, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, France’s IFREMER, the Geological Surveys of Austria and Denmark and the US National Science Foundation. He has also held scientific advisory positions with the World Bank and the White House in Washington DC. Currently he is a resident scholar at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and a research professor at Sorbonne University in Paris. He has lectured on stratigraphy and exploration related topics around the world. Haq has published widely and several of his papers are now citation classics, especially those on the Phanerozoic history of sea level changes and sequence stratigraphy that are among the most cited in geosciences. In a survey by an independent group of scientists one of his papers was included the 100 most influential papers in geosciences of all times, a list that includes such luminaries as, Lyell, Darwin, Holmes, Hutton and Milankovitch, among others. For his scientific contributions he was recently honored by Sorbonne University with a doctoris honoris causa, and inducted into the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as other honors from around the world that include the Shepard Medal in marine geosciences, the Antarctic Medal from the NSF, and the Ocean Sciences Award from the American Geophysical Union. Most recently he was honored by tge Prestwich Prize by the Geological Society of France. Haq also inspired and help set up world’s first Geopark based on giant sculptures of fossil microorganisms (Foraminifera) in Guangzhou, China, chosen as third most important must-visit “evotourism” site by the Smithsonian Magazine. He also successfully appealed to the Chinese government and helped save a prolific Miocene fossil lake site in Shandong Province in China, which was declared another National Geopark and a plaque in the adjacent dedicated museum commemorates his contributions. His peers have recognized him by naming of a fossil genus and species after him (Haqius circumradiatus and Reticulofenetra haqii).

Professor Haq is also a poet and has published four books of verse, entitled Musings, Reflections, Ruminations, and Glimpses of Nature and Man. The last one also includes his personal art works. His poetic message is a simple one that we have to learn to live in harmony with Nature.

If you wish to participate or have any inquiry please do not hesitate to send an email to:

We are looking forward to meeting you in Sopron!