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Interface: The SEGH Newsletter
INTERFACE

Archive Issues: June 2007 European Conference | December 2007 | March 2007 | April 2006 (pdf) | September 2004 | November 2003 | June 2003 | November 2002 | August 2002 | December 2001 | June 2001

Dear Members,


To end 2003, this issue of INTERFACE contains the report (and photographs) from the ISEG 2003 meeting held in Edinburgh, September 2003, a tribute to Brian Davies who was presented with an SEGH Special Award for his contribution and leadership as Editor of the journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health, and notes from the Executive Board, SEGH AGM and EGAH Editorial Board meetings that were also held in Edinburgh during ISEG 2003.


You will also find details of forthcoming SEGH conferences and other meetings of potential interest and the up-to-date list of Executive Board Members. Placed inside, there should also be a separate flyer for the 4th Asia-Pacific Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry (APSEG 4) to be held on 18-20 January, 2005, Perth, Western Australia. This contains deadlines and key dates, registration fees and contact information for correspondence. The Organising Chairperson, Ron Watkins, would be delighted to welcome members from all sections of SEGH to Perth in 2005!


Finally, I would like to remind you about our website (www.segh.net), which is being updated where possible on a quarterly basis. This hosts information about SEGH, the latest and archive issues of INTERFACE, the Executive Board Members list, information about forthcoming meetings and a Discussion Forum. We would like to encourage you to visit the website and welcome any contributions to the Discussion Forum.

Margaret Graham
(Margaret.Graham@ed.ac.uk)

University of Edinburgh
November 2003

 

Report from the 6th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry (ISEG 2003), Edinburgh, 7-11 September 2003

ISEG 2003 in Edinburgh, following in the footsteps of the previous Symposia in the series at Cape Town (2000), Vail (1997), Krakow (1994) and Uppsala (1991), was attended by about 350 delegates from over 50 countries. Blessed with the additional benefit of beautiful late-summer weather, the Symposium was widely regarded as a resounding success.

There were six distinct scientific themes at ISEG 2003 – Archives of Environmental Contamination, Geochemical Surveys, Mining, Contamination & Cleanup, Geochemistry & Health, and Analytical Geochemistry. These reflected the diverse nature and interests of the various participating Societies (including SEGH), Organisations and Groups under the broad umbrella of Environmental Geochemistry but, as ever, the fundamental understanding and quantification of biogeochemical processes and the impact of their perturbation, not least upon human health, underpinned the interests of all delegates.

ISEG 2003 featured five Plenary Lectures, some 175 contributed talks and a similar number of posters. The Plenary Lectures were presented by Jane Plant (‘Chemicals in the Environment: Implications for Global Sustainability’), Bob Finkelman (‘Medical Geology: A 10,000 Year Old Opportunity’), Stuart Miller (‘Acid Rock Drainage Prediction: Grams to Gigatonnes’), Clemens Reimann (‘Element Enrichment Factors: A Tool to Differentiate Geogenic and Anthropogenic Element Sources?’) and Kevin Jones (‘POPMOBILITY: The Global Cycling of Persistent Organic Pollutants’) and set both the scene and standard for some lively cut and thrust debate throughout the Symposium.
Unfortunately, Bill Shotyk, the other intended Plenary Lecturer (‘Peat Bog Archives of Atmospheric Trace Elements: Metals, Non-Metals and Metalloids’), was unable to attend owing to serious illness, from which he is now recovering.

In addition to the Lecture and Poster Programmes, there were several successful Field Trips before, during and after the Symposium, a pre-Symposium Short Course on ‘Medical Geology – Metals, Health and the Environment’, Business Meetings for some of the Societies and Groups, an Exhibition, an informative visit to BGS Edinburgh and a Social Programme that featured traditional Scottish customs and entertainment such as whisky tasting and a post-Symposium Dinner ceilidh, in all of which delegates participated most enthusiastically.

As Chairman of ISEG 2003, I and the other members of the Local Organising Committee (Fiona Fordyce, Margaret Graham, Gus MacKenzie and Keith Nicholson) would once again like to thank the various Societies, Organisations, Groups, Sponsors and Exhibitors, as well as our colleagues on the Scientific Programme Committee and International Advisory Panel, for all their support and input. We now wish the Organisers of the 7th ISEG, headed by Congqiang Liu (Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences; State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry) and Baoshan Zheng (Institute of Geochemistry; Committee of Environmental Geochemistry, Chinese Society of Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry), every success for ISEG 2006, which will be held in Beijing, September 2006.

John Farmer
Chairman, ISEG 2003
& President, SEGH




The SEGH Special Award to Brian E. Davies for his Contribution and Leadership as Editor of the journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 1985 to 2003.


Professor Brian E. Davies was recognized with a special SEGH award for his many contributions and leadership as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health (EG&H) for the past 18 years at the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH) Annual General Meeting held in the Appleton Tower, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, on Monday 8 September 2003. Dr. Davies will become Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of EG&H, the official journal of SEGH, which is well known to the SEGH membership and scientists throughout the world.

In March 1985 he assumed responsibilities as the new editor of Environmental Geochemistry and Health (EG&H), a revised journal incorporating Minerals and the Environment, which was published from 1979 to 1985 by Science and Technology Letters. In 1993, the journal was changed to a blue-green cover and when Chapman and Hall acquired the journal in 1995 a blue outer cover was used. In 1999, Kluwer Academic Publishers in the Netherlands became the present day publisher of the journal utilizing a downsized page size and a sky blue and white cover design. Dr. Davies worked constantly to improve the journal and assembled a recognized international editorial board to strengthen the credibility of the journal through a rigorous refereeing process to evaluate scientific publications.

In addition to his role as Editor of EG&H Dr. Davies continued to play a major leadership role in the development of SEGH. In October 1982, with support from the SEGH Executive Board, Dr. Davies organized and chaired the first European Section meeting in Birmingham, England, UK, which ultimately led to the formation of the present day European Section of SEGH. He served as a councillor on the SEGH Executive Board from 1984 to 1987 and was elected President of the Society for 1990-1991. He has continued to support the SEGH as a Past President and served as the Co-Chairman of the special SEGH task force that developed the 1993 report on "Lead in Soil: Recommended Guidelines", which has been utilized in the United States and the United Kingdom for the development of Soil Guideline Values for Lead Contamination. All of these various accomplishments were in addition to his recognition for academic instruction, research, administration and extensive publication record during the time that Dr. Davies served on the faculty of the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, Wales, the University of Bradford in England, and Clemson University, South Carolina, in the United States. Following his retirement from Clemson University, Dr. Davies and his wife Gillian presently reside in Anderson, South Carolina.

SEGH is proud to recognize and honour Dr. Brian E. Davies for his many accomplishments along with his abilities and dedication as Editor of the journal Environmental Geochemistry and Health from 1985 to 2003. He leaves a great legacy for Dr. Ming Hung Wong, the next Editor of the journal, along with a record of exceptional leadership in the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health. Thank you, Brian, for your great career and accomplishments. Please accept congratulations on this SEGH award with honour from your many friends throughout the world.


Bobby G. Wixson
Past President SEGH



Notes from the SEGH Executive Board, SEGH AGM and EGAH Editorial Board meetings at Edinburgh, September 2003

1. There are approximately 230 members of SEGH in total (Europe 97, North America 87, Asia-Pacific 48).

2. There is a good programme of SEGH Conferences lined up for 2004 and 2005.

3. Margaret Graham (INTERFACE Editor) has also taken on responsibility for updating the SEGH website (www.segh.net).

4. An ad hoc committee consisting of Malcolm Brown (Europe), Bobby Wixson (North America) and Xiangdong Li (Asia-Pacific) has been set up to develop a draft SEGH business plan and marketing programme for review by the Executive Board at the next Board Meeting in San Diego in July 2004.

5. The Europe and Asia-Pacific branches of SEGH have been asked to develop policies (cf. SEGH by-laws for the overall Society) appropriate to their own ‘local’ conditions.

6. Potential topics for future SEGH Task Forces will be discussed at the next Board Meeting.

7. The new Editor of Environmental Geochemistry and Health, Ming Wong, and a representative of Kluwer, Paul Roos, discussed ways in which both the journal and its modus operandi could be improved. The Society’s views were forcefully but constructively expressed.

8. There were constructive discussions between representatives from SEGH and Olle Selinus’s ‘Medical Geology’ group with a view to developing practical links between the two organisations and, indeed, Environmental Geochemistry and Health over the next year. The position will be reviewed at the next Board Meeting in July 2004.

John Farmer
President, SEGH


22nd Annual European Conference on Environmental Geochemistry and Health, Brighton, England, 5-7 April, 2004

The 22nd Annual European Conference (22nd, if we consider the 21st to have been incorporated within the 6th ISEG in Edinburgh this September), will be held on 5-7 April, 2004, at the University of Sussex, Brighton, England. The Conference Organiser is Prof. Michael Ramsey (m.h.ramsey@sussex.ac.uk), from the University of Sussex. A call for abstracts will be announced early in 2004.

The 23rd Annual European Conference, Spring 2005, may be held in Athens, Greece (to be confirmed).



Forthcoming Conferences/Symposia 2004-2005

SEGH Meetings


22nd Annual European Conference on Environmental Geochemistry and Health

Location: University of Sussex, England
Dates: 5-7 April, 2004
Contact: Prof. Michael Ramsey
(m.h.ramsey@sussex.ac.uk)
University of Sussex, Brighton, England

6th International Conference on Arsenic Exposure and Health Effects

Location: San Diego, USA
Dates: 25-29 July 2004
Contact: Dr. Willard Chappell
(wchappel@carbon.cudenver.edu)
University of Colo-Denver, Denver CO, USA
4th Asia Pacific Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry

Location: Perth, Western Australia
Dates: 18-20 January, 2005
Website: www.apseg4.curtin.edu.au
Contact: Organising Secretary
(apseg4@curtin.edu.au)
APSEG4, EIGG, Brodie Hall Building, 1 Turner Avenue, Technology Park, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia



Other Meetings of Interest


5th International Conference on Environmental Geochemistry in the Tropics (GEOTROP04)

Location: Haikou, Hainan, China
Dates: 21-26 March, 2004
Contact: Jing Song, Nanjing, China
(jingsong@iassas.ac.cn)

4th Materials Congress: Platinum – from Cradle to Grave

Location: London UK
Dates: 31st March, 2004
Website: www.iom3.org/congress2004

8th Symposium on Trace Elements in the Environment: Iron and Manganese in the Environment – Ecological and Analytical Problems

Location: Warsaw, Poland
Dates: 26-27 May, 2004
Website: www.ibprs.pl/femn2004

Geo-Environment 2004

Location: Los Arcos Hotel, Segovia, Spain
Dates: 5-7 July, 2004
Contact: Gaye McKeogh
(gmckeogh@wessex.ac.uk)
7th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP)

Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Dates: 27 June- 2 July, 2004
Contact: Dr. Milena Horvat
(milena.horvat@ijs.si)
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Environmental Mineralogy and Geochemistry Groups “Speciation and Toxicity”

Location: Birkbeck-UCL, London, UK
Dates: 13-14 September, 2004
Contact: Dr. Karen Hudson-Edwards
(k.hudson-edwards@geology.bbk.ac.uk) or
Dr. Mark Hodson
(m.e.hodson@reading.ac.uk)

Acid Rain 2005 (7th International Conference on Acid Deposition)

Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Dates: June 2005
Contact: acid2005@chmi.cz
Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Santroch Jaroslav, Na Sabatce 17, CZ-143 06 Prague 4, Czech Republic



Members of the SEGH Executive Board, November 2003

President John G. Farmer
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland (J.G.Farmer@ed.ac.uk)


Vice-President Andrew Hunt
SUNY Upstate Medical
University, Syracuse, NY, USA (AHUNT2@TWCNY.RR.COM)


Secretary Bobby G. Wixson
(Past-Pres.)
Springfield, MO, USA
(DRBGWIXSON@aol.com)


Treasurer Nord L. Gale (Past-Pres.)
University of MO-Rolla, Rolla,
MO, USA (nlgale@umr.edu)


Councillors Malcolm J. Brown
British Geological Survey,
England (mjbro@bgs.ac.uk)

John Carter
The Doe Run Company,
Viburnum, MO, USA
(jcarter@doerun.com)

Joy Carter
University of Glamorgan
Pontypridd, CF37 1DL
(jcarter@glam.ac.uk)

Xiangdong Li
(Chair, Asia/Pacific)
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
(cexdli@polyu.edu.hk)

Aradhana Mehra
(Chair, Europe)
University of Derby, England
(A.Mehra@derby.ac.uk)

Howard Mielke
Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, USA (hmielke@xula.edu)

Joyce Tsuji
EXPONENT, Bellevue, WA, USA
(tsujij@exponent.com)

Ron T. Watkins
Curtin University of
Technology, Perth, Australia
(iwatkins@info.curtin.edu.au)


Past Presidents Richard Cothern
Chevy Chase, MD, USA
(rcothern@core.com)

Jim Fricke
Resource Management
Consultants, Midvale, Utah,
USA (jim@rmc-ut.com)

Ron Fuge
University of Wales,
Aberystwyth,
Wales (rrf@aber.ac.uk)

Betsy T. Kagey
Cumberland, MD, USA
(bkagey@mail.frostburg.edu)

Iain Thornton
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, England (i.thornton@imperial.ac.uk)


Task Force Willard Chappell
Chair University of Colo-Denver,
Denver, CO, USA
(wchappel@carbon.cudenver.edu)

Journal Editors Brian E. Davies (Past Pres.)
Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA (bedavies@bellsouth.net)

Ming H. Wong
Hong Kong Baptist University,
Hong Kong, China
(mhwong@hkbu.edu.hk)


Interface Editor Margaret C. Graham
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland (Margaret.Graham@ed.ac.uk)

Officers

John G. Farmer (President)
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland (J.G.Farmer@ed.ac.uk)

Andrew Hunt (Vice-President)
SUNY Upstate Medical University,
Syracuse, NY, USA (ahunt2@twcny.rr.com)

Bobby G. Wixson (Secretary & Past-Pres.)
Springfield, MO, USA
(DRBGWIXSON@aol.com)

Nord L. Gale (Treasurer & Past-Pres.)
University of MO-Rolla, Rolla,
MO, USA (nlgale@umr.edu)

Councillors

Malcolm J. Brown
British Geological Survey,
England (mjbro@bgs.ac.uk)

John Carter
The Doe Run Company, Viburnum,
MO, USA (jcarter@doerun.com)

Joy Carter
University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd,
CF37 1DL (jcarter@glam.ac.uk)

Xiangdong Li (Chair, Asia/Pacific)
Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Hong Kong, China (cexdli@polyu.edu.hk)

Aradhana Mehra (Chair, Europe)
University of Derby, England
(A.Mehra@derby.ac.uk)

Howard Mielke
Xavier University of Louisiana,
New Orleans, LA, USA (hmielke@xula.edu)

Joyce Tsuji
EXPONENT, Bellevue, WA, USA
(tsujij@exponent.com)

Ron T. Watkins
Curtin University of Technology,
Perth, Australia
(iwatkins@info.curtin.edu.au)


Past Presidents

Richard Cothern
Chevy Chase, MD, USA
(rcothern@core.com)

Brian E. Davies
Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA (bedavies@bellsouth.net)

Jim Fricke
Resource Management
Consultants, Midvale, Utah,
USA (jim@rmc-ut.com)

Ron Fuge
University of Wales,
Aberystwyth, Wales
(rrf@aber.ac.uk)

Betsy T. Kagey
Cumberland, MD, USA
(bkagey@mail.frostburg.edu)

Iain Thornton
Imperial College of Science,
Technology and Medicine,
England (i.thornton@imperial.ac.uk)

Task Force Chair

Willard Chappell
University of Colo-Denver,
Denver, CO, USA
(wchappel@carbon.cudenver.edu)

Journal Editor

Ming H. Wong
Hong Kong Baptist University,
Hong Kong, China
(mhwong@hkbu.edu.hk)

Interface Editor

Margaret C. Graham
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland (Margaret.Graham@ed.ac.uk)