General research and teaching profile:

In 2013, he obtained a PhD in socio-economic geography (specialising in historical geography). He graduated with a master's degree in geography (2007) and history (2011) from the University of Łódź. In 2022, he completed postgraduate studies in administration and management at the Warsaw School of Economics. He is currently employed as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Geography of the University of Łódź, in the Department of Political Geography, Historical Geography and Regional Studies (Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Organisation).

In 2018-2019, he completed a one-year research internship at the Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and in 2025, he completed two two-month internships abroad: at the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy), Dipartimento di Studi Internazionali, Giuridici e Storico – Politici (February-March 2025) and the Université de Lorraine in Metz (France), Centre de recherche en géographie - LOTERR (June-July 2025), thanks to a scholarship from the National Agency for Academic Exchange (as part of the ‘Prom’ programme).

Since 2024, he has been the chair of the Commission on Political and Historical Geography of the Polish Geographical Society (previously, in 2014-2023, he was the vice-chair of this committee); in 2021-2024, he served as chairman of the Łódź Branch of the Polish Geographical Society (previously, from 2019 to 2021, he was secretary of the board of this branch). In the 2024-2028 term, he is the chair of the Faculty Election Committee at the Faculty of Geographical Sciences of the University of Łódź (previously, in 2020-2024, he was the secretary of this committee). Since 2022, as a result of elections, he has been a member of the Historical Geography Commission of the Polish Historical Society, and since 2021, a member of the Urban Planning Section of the Architecture and Urban Planning Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 2008, he has been a member of the Faculty of Geographical Sciences Council for five consecutive terms as a representative of auxiliary research and teaching staff. He was the secretary and editor of the scientific journal ‘Studia z Geografii Politycznej i Historycznej’ (Studies in Political and Historical Geography) (2012-2020).

His scientific achievements include several dozen publications, including the editing of four monographs related to historical geography, settlement geography and cultural heritage research. He is the author or co-author of over 50 papers at national and international conferences (in particular ISUF, EUGEO and MUG, including in Paris, Valencia, Nicosia, Dublin, Glasgow, Prague, Barcelona, Krasnoyarsk, Salt Lake City, etc.) mainly on the issues of spatial structures of settlement and cultural heritage in a geographical and historical perspective, with particular emphasis on the origins and transformations of rural and urban layouts. He was a contractor in four research grants from the National Science Centre (Opus programme) and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Dialog and Science for Society programmes). In 2025, he received NAWA funding for a research project in France, and in the same year he was awarded a scholarship from the Brzezie Lanckoroński Foundation and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences for a month-long trip to London to carry out a research project.

Since 2008, he has been teaching mainly to students of geography and spatial economy. He has supervised 20 master's students (including 19 in geography and 1 in spatial economy) and 1 bachelor's student in regional studies. Dr Figlus was an assistant supervisor in three doctoral programmes that resulted in the award of a doctoral degree (Dr Anna Kruś, Dr Anna Majewska, Dr Monika Cepl).

As part of his outreach activities, he has given lectures at the Festival of Science, Technology and Art in Łódź, the Geography Olympiad, a series of lectures organised by the Polish Geographical Society, and for the Municipal Library in Łódź. He has organised over thirty lectures for teachers, schoolchildren and university students, co-organised several editions of ‘Geographer's Day’ at his home faculty, and curated the exhibition ‘Plans and Views of Cities in Civitates Orbis Terrarum – 450 Years of the First Edition of the Atlas (1572-2022)’. On behalf of the Regional Examination Commission, he served as an observer of external examinations in schools in the Łódź region.

For his scientific and teaching achievements, he was awarded the University of Łódź Medal In the Service of Society and Science (2025), the Gold Badge of the Polish Geographical Society (2025), the 1st Class Award of the Rector of the University of Łódź (2025), the Medal of the National Education Commission (2024), and the Bronze Medal for Long Service (2018). In 2014, he received the award of the Marshal of the Łódź Province for the best doctoral thesis on the Łódź region.

geography and history of settlement,

historical geography,

urban and rural geography,

urban and rural planning,

geography of borders and borderlands,

regional geography,

cultural heritage research