IPA President Roger Thomas Highlights Palaeontology’s Vital Role in Global Science and Public Policy at IUGS 2025 Meeting

Professor Roger Thomas, Interim President of the IPA, delivered a compelling address at the recent 2025 Executive Committee Meeting of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in Paris. He underscored palaeontology’s critical relevance to modern environmental challenges and human prospects for survival. His presentation,warmly received by global geoscience leaders, outlined IPA’s recent advances and its urgent call to strengthen education, research, and outreach initiatives.

Revitalizing IPA and Expanding Global Reach
Under Thomas’s leadership, IPA has revitalized its operations over the past 18 months. Efforts include re-engaging Corporate Member societies, recognizing their members as Affiliated Individual Members of IPA, modernizing IPA’s website with support from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the establishment by Dr. Thomas Olszewski of an effective system of financial management. These reforms aim to bolster IPA’s role as a global coordinator of palaeontological research and education. IPA eagerly looks forward to the upcoming 7th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC7) to be held in Cape Town (2026),which will be IPA’s first congress to be held in Africa.

Palaeontology: A Gateway and Essential Science
Thomas advocated palaeontology as both a “Gateway Science” and an “Essential Science.” Fossils, he argued, captivate public imagination and have more potential than is widely recognized to serve as powerful tools for teaching STEM disciplines. More crucially, palaeontologists’expertise in analyzing extinction patterns equips them to advise policymakers on mitigating humanity’s existential risks. Highlighting the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, Thomas noted that, while other dinosaurs were wiped out, progenitors of modern birds survived. They did so by evolving in ways from which humans must learn, to emulate their adaptive traits and to reduce our greatest vulnerabilities.

IPA’s Immediate and Future Goals
IPA is seeking financial support to aid in underwriting student participation in IPC7, to upgrade its outreach platform and programs, and to support Lethaia,its open-access journal that is especially valuable to researchers with limited funding. Thomas also noted IPA’s collaboration with IUGS in designating Geological Heritage Sites and its intention to reinvigorate IPA’s own PaleoParks conservation program.

Conclusion
Thomas reaffirmed palaeontology’s role in addressing society’s current challenges and hopes for the future. Bridging past and present, IPA aims to inspire policies that will prolong humanity’s survival. “Palaeontology must punch above its weight”,he insisted,urging collective action to enhance its impact.