Michael Watts provides an insight into the 34th SEGH International Conference on Geochemistry for Sustainable Development that he recently attended at the Avani Victoria Falls Resort, Livingstone, Zambia from 2nd to 7th July 2018.Delegates attending the annual Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH) conference were treated to a spectacular conference venue alongside the Zambezi and Victoria Falls in Zambia. Thankfully we were treated to an engaging and varied programme of 45 oral presentations and 46 poster presentations to avoid VicFalls becoming a distraction to the 100+ delegates from all over the world during the scientific programme, with the following themes:
- Industrial and Urban Development
- Agriculture
- Health
- Technologies
Whilst we had specialist presentations within each theme from the impact of mining to highly focussed talks about laboratory methods and mechanisms for nutrient/pollutant pathways, delegates also had a very healthy debate about corporate and social responsibility (CSR) for mining. Discussions were also had on ethics in science, with an audience participation talk from Kate Millar-University of Nottingham to round off the conference. In addition, presenters discussed activities where environmental sciences crossover with human and animal health. Presentations covered possible links between geochemistry and cancer from IARC-WHO, use of data for hazard-risk assessment criteria for contaminated soils and air pollution to implications for nutrient deficiencies and exposure to potentially harmful elements effecting wildlife. Implications for food production and food safety were discussed due to fertiliser overuse, urban development, pollution and with an ever increasing theme on fisheries, in particular the value of aquaculture to provide food/nutrient sufficiency, but also implications for antimicrobial resistance in fish (AMR). Conservation Agriculture to promote crop resilience and improve their micronutrient content. Laboratory method/technology development, with applications on improving the understanding of mechanistic pathways for pollutants or nutrients were discussed using isotope tracers and/or elemental speciation, along with organic pollutants, biomarkers for ecological and human health monitoring. Overall, each session was well attended throughout.
Poster presentations
Poster presentations were run across two evenings with social events, preceded by 90-second flash presentations, which generated a great deal of amusement with the delegates, given the competitiveness of the presenters to beat the clock – otherwise the audience would applaud at 90-seconds. This approach was certainly a big factor in helping to generate a relaxed atmosphere at the conference and encourage interaction between disciplines and levels of experience. This made for two vibrant poster sessions giving the presenters the much deserved attention and recognition posters require, where often valuable nuggets of scientific progress are to be found at conferences.
Training Day
Many thanks to the volunteers who provided the training workshops on day 4 following on from three days of presentations. The morning began with parallel sessions on an Introduction to QGIS given by Dr Daniel Middleton (IARC-WHO) alongside ‘Embedding Ethics in Experimental Design in Geochemistry Research’ by Dr Kate Millar (University of Nottingham), followed by ‘Reviewing manuscripts and getting published’ by Professor Jane Entwistle (Northumbria University). The afternoon followed with an ‘Introduction to R’ by Professor Murray Lark (University of Nottingham) in parallel with ‘Epidemiologic study design and interpretation’ by Dr Valerie McCormack and Dr Joachim Schuz (IARC-WHO). Given that the courses followed the conference programme and BOMA dinner, they were well attended with 18-20 in each of the technical courses and 11-16 in each of the vocational courses, with >50% of the participants from Africa. Another blog will follow on the SEGH website to describe further outcomes from the training courses and how we will link these into the setting up of an Early Career Researchers group – more on this later.Prizes
Prizes were awarded to Elliott Hamilton (British Geological Survey) and Lin Peng (Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College) for best Oral presentations and to Nswana Kafwamfwa (Zambia Agriculture Research Institute-ZARI) and Mumba Mwape (ZARI) for best Poster presentations. Springer-Nature Publications provided book vouchers for 2 x $250 for Oral presentations and 2 x $150 for Poster presentations.Social programme
The evening before the conference presentations started we held an ice-breaker at the Royal Livingstone Hotel alongside the Zambezi. A stunning setting to relax delegates and get them mixing with one another. Local media were present, with an article about the conference and SEGH appearing on page 2 of the Zambia Times the next day and interviews with delegates shown on local TV the following night – see @SocEGH Twitter for newspaper article #SEGH2018.
Days 1 & 2 were rounded off by the poster sessions, with food and drinks, leading up to the BOMA-conference dinner next to the Zambezi, some 100m upstream of Victoria Falls. The food provided something for everyone, with a delicious braai accompanied by a local performing traditional dance and music, which gradually swept up even the most self-conscious people to dance the night away. The willingness of everyone to let their hair down and have fun was quite something, truly down to the warmth and fun you find in Africa.
The fieldtrip incorporated a trip to a cultural village centre which I have to admit I didn’t attend, but I heard that it was an enriching visit to understand some of the local culture and to be welcomed into people’s homes – perhaps others can explain. However, I did make the finale of the fieldtrip, the sunset cruise on the Zambezi. This was a fantastic way to round off the conference with a gentle trip upstream along the Zambezi attempting to spot wildlife on the banks with nice food and drinks, which of course led to more music and dancing on the boat. Many people continued their travels connecting with friends and family to make a holiday of the visit to the Victoria Falls region for wildlife viewing or crazy activities like bungee jumping or rafting the Zambezi.
SEGH Business
Whilst a lot of new connections were made and old cemented during the conference, SEGH also had a number of key tasks to perform for its future structure. Most of all, that included restructuring the international board to have four representatives from each of the European, Americas, Asia/Pacific regions and to set up a new section in Africa to fill a gap in multidisciplinary communities. Nominations will be called for shortly, with elections soon after. We will ask for greater contributions from members to drive the society forward, this could be ad hoc for information gathering or if members want to participate on the advisory council or through the Early Career Researchers (ECR) group. SEGH2018 was a big step in setting up the ECR, for which Jane Entwistle set out future plans to develop a programme of mentorship, training opportunities and interaction over a three year supported period whereby ECR members will be connected with appropriate SEGH members. We have an initial grouping of 25 ECR’s from SEGH2018 to develop the programme, which will become available to others to balance the demographics as we establish the programme. We also see this grouping as a test bed and for generating new ideas to develop SEGH, improving communication with social media and hopefully for succession management to run SEGH in the future. ECR’s will have an opportunity to develop through to a Fellowship status for SEGH (FSEGH), as will senior researchers who have been engaged with SEGH for a number of years. Jane Entwistle will follow up with more information on this later.SEGH Journal
We reported that the impact factor for the SEGH journal, Environmental Geochemistry and Health (EGAH) increased again this year to 2.99, continuing its success as a home for multidisciplinary science. Members can access the journal through the log-in button on the front page of www.segh.net Delegates, please remember we have a special issue in EGAH for the conference. Please indicate your interest by the 20th August. We will aim for a submission date of 12th October.
Thanks
Many thanks to the people who helped to bring together the conference – there were many! We had a lot of encouraging words about the conference, please do post any comments on Twitter. In particular, many thanks to the sponsors who helped in keeping the social programme inclusive for all delegates – Agilent Technologies, First Quantum, Trace2O-Wagtech, Retsch, Spectro-Ametek and Chemetrix.
Future
We look forward to a strong programme of conferences next year, with SEGH 2019 moving to Manchester in the UK, SEGH involvement in ISEGH in China, China-Ireland Cooperation in Galway-Ireland and we hope to run some smaller 1-2 day meetings in Africa and elsewhere to maintain engagement with members – if you have some ideas, do let us know. Keep in touch with SEGH events through the website and do offer your scientific updates, comments or stories to www.segh.net and through @SocEGH on twitter and upcoming pages on Facebook. We will post an updated version of the SEGH2018 conference abstract book in a week or so to account for the last minute changes to the programme – see https://segh2018.org
Michael Watts is Head of Inorganic Geochemistry at the University of Nottingham - British Geological Survey Centre for Environmental Geochemistry.
Michael Watts is Head of Inorganic Geochemistry at the University of Nottingham - British Geological Survey Centre for Environmental Geochemistry.
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