Agenda

Conference | THE BIOSPHERE
Vladimir Vernadsky and the Making of Planetary Science

Friday, 26 June 2026

Ca’ Foscari, Aula Berengo
Dorsoduro 3246, Venice

KEYNOTE SPEAKER Jürgen Renn

PARTICIPANTS
Victor Brovkin · Nigel Clark · Marin Coudreau · Laurent Coumel · Sébastien Dutreuil · Giovanni Fava · Jacques Grinevald · Antonia Majaca · Valentina Marcheselli · Alessandro Maresca · Jonathan Oldfield · Pietro Daniel Omodeo · Giulia Rispoli · Mark Williams

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

This one-day conference marks the centenary of the publication of The Biosphere by Vladimir I. Vernadsky and aims to reassess its contemporary relevance in light of ongoing debates on the Anthropocene and the global ecological crisis. More than a commemorative event, the workshop takes this anniversary as an opportunity to revisit Vernadsky’s thought as a critical resource for current scientific and epistemological challenges.

Over the past two decades, the notion of the Earth system has become a central framework for understanding planetary-scale transformations driven by the entanglement of biogeochemical processes, climate dynamics, and human activity. At the same time, the geological framing of the Anthropocene has raised fundamental questions about the historical, political, and epistemic conditions under which planetary knowledge is produced. In this context, Vernadsky’s conception of the biosphere offers a systemic, dynamic, and historically grounded perspective that remains strikingly relevant today.

• The workshop brings Vernadsky’s work into dialogue with three interconnected fields:
• the geological and stratigraphic debates surrounding the Anthropocene, recent debates in Earth System Science
• and broader reflections on the planetary and epistemic dimensions of the global crisis in the technosphere.

Particular attention will be given to the relationship between biosphere and noosphere, understood not merely as a historical concept but as a still-inspiring framework for thinking about the interactions between life, scientific knowledge, technology, and planetary transformation.
By revisiting Vernadsky’s integration of biogeochemical processes, human agency, and forms of collective knowledge, the conference seeks to contribute to ongoing efforts to rethink planetary science beyond reductionist models, highlighting its epistemological, historical, and normative implications.

SPIN 2022 “Nuclear Winter: Biosphere Modeling and International Governance” CUP H75F22000030001, tutor Prof.ssa Giulia Rispoli, presso il Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali. (rif. Bando Rep. n. 1154/2024 prot.n. 0198546 del 30/08/2024)

https://www.unive.it/web/en/18380/home