with astrophysics. Among such initiatives was a master's level area studies program in astrophysics at the Jagiellonian University, established in 1997. Commission of Technical Sciences This Commission was founded in 2003 and comprises seven sections: of Civil Engineering; of Construction, Technology and Operation of Machines; of Engineering and Technology of Ceramic Materials; of Informatics, Automatics and Robotics; of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering; of Mining and Power Engineering; of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering. Natural Sciences The PAU's Natural Sciences section brings together representatives of the biological, agricultural, and geological sciences. The lectures at the section's meetings, typically held jointly with the PAU Mathematics Section, Physics, and Chemistry, and the Medical Section, have dealt with current interdisciplinary problems in biology and earth sciences. In addition to Polish members, the lecturers have included foreign members of the Academy, such as Andrzej Bartke (Carbondale, Illinois, USA), and Otton H. Walliser (Göttingen). The section has also taken part in organizing symposia, e.g. the National Conference on Cell Biology (1996) and the International School on the Biophysics of Membrane Transport (1997). Particularly noteworthy is the study by Andrzej Falniowski, Ways and Byways in the Evolution of Mollusks (2001), which appeared in the section's series of Papers. Commission on Agricultural, Forests, and Veterinary Sciences The Commission's activities are focused on the organization of scientific symposia, whose materials are published either in the form of separate single-topic volumes or in the series of Works. Currently, the Commission has been working on the issues connected with Polish agriculture, forestry and animal breeding in Europe united in EU. Commission on Quaternary Palaeogeography This Commission was founded in 1979 within the Kraków branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences, but since 1993 it has been a part of the PAU. Its roots can be traced back to the Committee for Palaeological Research, founded by the PAU in 1928, and to its official publication, Palaeology, in print since 1933. The Commission integrates various disciplines involved in the study of the Quaternary Period: geologists, geomorphologists, paleontologists, archaeologists, and others. The Commission's works are published in the Folia Quaternaria. To date, volumes 64—74 have appeared under the aegis of PAU publications; these have comprised collections of papers dealing with neotectonics, Paleolithic settlement on the loess uplands of the Kraków region, paleomalacology, and dendrochronology. The Commission's meetings have heard papers on the stratigraphy of Pleistocene and Holocene sediments in the light of malacological and palynological