In July 2023, Sapienza will host the 21^st Congress of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), one of the most important geology conferences worldwide.

The Italian success was officially announced during the closing ceremony of the 20^th INQUA Congress in Dublin on July 31 after that the International Council voted in favour of the Italian proposal, competing against the Indian one. Indeed, bringing the global meeting of Quaternary Sciences to Italy is an enormous success for the entire Italian Quaternary community. (Quaternary refers to the most recent and current geological era, the one in which we are living.)

Quaternary studies are an interdisciplinary field that embraces the last 2.6 million years, since mankind first appeared, and the alternation of glacial and interglacial phases formed the earth on which we live. These are fundamental studies to reconstruct the processes underway, to understand current global change caused by mankind and natural variability and to understand which resources are truly renewable.

Moreover, 2023 will also mark the 70^th anniversary of the first and only previous INQUA Congress held in Italy, in Rome and Pisa in 1953. Italian scholars were instrumental to the development of Quaternary studies starting the second half of the twentieth century. And the current scientific community still receives praise and recognition notwithstanding the lack of funding and infrastructure it suffers compared to colleagues in economically more developed countries.