The Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water was the Platinum Sponsor for the 23rd European Meeting on Environmental Chemistry (EMEC23), an annual interdisciplinary conference that covers a broad range of topics within the field of environmental chemistry.
PSIPW has partnered with EMEC since 2017 by providing grants to plenary speakers and awards to young researchers.
EMEC23 was held in Budva, Montenegro, from 3 to 6 December 2023. It brought together environmental chemists at all career levels, from world-leading senior scientists to as early-stage researchers, committed to protecting the environment and ensuring the sustainability of our natural environment.
EMEC is organised annually on behalf of the Association for Chemistry and the Environment (ACE). It is held in early December and always attracts highly relevant high-quality scientific presentations in environmental chemistry and related areas.
PSIPW supported two plenary speakers at the conference.
The first was John. P. Giesy, Professor and Former Canada Research Chair in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Saskaatchewan. Professor Giesy is a world leading eco-toxicologist and environmental chemist with a total of over a quarter of a billion dollars ($284,547,002 CAD) in funding for his career. He discovered the phenomenon of photo enhanced toxicity of organic compounds, such as PAHs. He was the first to report the occurrence of perfluorinated compounds in the environment. Recently he has been using e-DNA and e-RNA to assess presence and absence of aquatic species, including invasive species, and community structures as well as effects of chemical and physical stressors and measuring the virus that causes COVID-19 in domestic sewage. He spoke at the conference on anthropogenic and naturally occurring brominated compounds.
PSIPW also supported the participation of Ioannis A. Katsoyiannis, Professor of Chemistry at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. Professor Katsoyiannis is Chair of the Division of Chemistry and the Environment of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS), Member of the executive board of EuChemS, and President of the Association of Greek Chemists. He spoke at the conference on the arsenic contamination of groundwater and novel approaches for its removal.
A crucial aspect of EMEC is the support it gives to young researchers. There are always a large number of young participants at EMEC, and their presentations at the conference are judged by a jury who nominate the best papers and posters.
Eight of 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.
