For the third consecutive year, the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water was the Platinum Sponsor for the European Meeting on Environmental Chemistry (EMEC), an interdisciplinary conference that covers a broad range of topics within the field of environmental chemistry.

EMEC20 was held in Łódź, Poland from 2-5 December 2019. It brought together scientists working in the field of environmental chemistry & environmental monitoring to report the most advanced research progress in this area and to pave the way for the future collaboration, research and challenges.

EMEC is organised annually on behalf of the Association for Chemistry and the Environment (ACE). It is held in early December and always attracts high quality science presentations from internationally-renowned researchers in environmental chemistry and related fields.

PSIPW supported the plenary speaker for water, Dr. Seppo Hellsten, who is the Head of the Unit of Restoration Assessment at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) in Oulu, Finland. The plenary lecture was entitled: “Management and restoration of surface water bodies receiving mine waters – lessons learned from Talvivaara mine impacts in northern part of Finland”. Dr. Hellsten has been a principal researcher in several EU Framework projects for ecological assessment. Currently he is co-heading the largest integrated LIFE Nature project FRESHABIT in Europe as well as BIOWATER – the Centre of Excellence in Nordic Bioeconomy. These projects have a specific focus on assessment and monitoring. He has been a member of several EU official working groups, such as Pilot River Basins, Heavily Modified Water Bodies and Environmental Flows.

A crucial aspect of EMEC is the support it gives to young researchers. There is a dedicated session for young participants, whose presentation are judged by the audience who nominate the best papers. The best posters by young researchers are also selected.

These young researchers are honoured at the EMEC Awards Ceremony on the conference’s final day with awards provided through PSIPW’s Prince Sultan Participation Grant programme. This year, three paper presenters and eight poster presenters were honoured.