25 years of Bulletins, 200 committee meetings
This year, the ECG celebrated its 200th committee meeting, and 25 years of Bulletins – originally known as the Environmental Chemistry Group Newsletter. This landmark comes at an interesting time, as we pull back from most in-person meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic and reflect on the role, purpose, and aims of the group.
Across 2020 and 2021, the group has seen a movement towards desktop conferences and meetings, hosting the highly successful #EnvChem2020, where we attracted a global audience and learnt valuable lessons in the facilitation of online events (reported in our January 2021 Bulletin). Recently, we sponsored the #RSCPoster Twitter Conference, encouraging scientific discussion without borders. All of our committee meetings have been online, and we are considering a mixture of both in-person and online meetings for the future, enabling greater accessibility (and so a greater diversity of committee members), without the loss of valuable face-to-face interactions and networking. Whilst we look forward to the return to physical meetings, we are exploring the possibilities for streaming or recording meetings to enable wider access.
As we reflect on these changes, we also consider those the environmental chemistry group has seen since its genesis, such as to the scope of its activities. Perhaps this extract from the January 1995 (Issue No. 1) of the Bulletin will provide a little more insight (Figure 1). The then editor, Rupert Purchase, only retired from the committee in recent years, and remains a contemporary contributor. Further insight into changes in environmental chemistry over the years is provided by David Owen (link), whose reflections throughout his career capture our rapidly-changing understanding of environmental chemistry across water, atmospheric, and industrial sectors. Rowena Fletcher-Wood
ECG Chair and Bulletin Executive editor |