Prague, 24 August 2011 – Prague hosted the major event in the field of geochemistry – the Goldschmidt Conference 2011. One of the most significant international events held in the Czech capital city this year, named ‘Earth, Life and Fire’, brought together scientists from around the world who discussed the issues in the field of evolution of the Earth, environmental chemistry and geochemistry of resources.
From 14 to 19 August, the Prague Congress Centre was the venue of 20 parallel scientific sessions and plenaries. Moreover, this year a full day special session was devoted to the Fukushima nuclear accident and its implications, organized together with the Geochemical Society of Japan. This session provided an overview of the context of the accident, of its causes, and of the dispersal of nuclear pollutants in Japan, in the Oceans, and in the atmosphere, and of future mitigation of its aftermaths.
The Goldschmidt Conference is held annually alternating between North America and Europe. After previous conferences in Cologne, Germany (2007), Vancouver, Canada (2008), Davos, Switzerland (2009) and Knoxville, USA (2010), the Czech capital Prague has observed the largest ever Goldschmidt conference with more than 3000 registered delegates. Next conferences will be held in Montreal, Canada (2012) and Florence, Italy (2013).
The European conferences are held under the auspices of the European Association of Geochemistry (http://www.eag.eu.com/). The chairmen of the conference are Bernard Bourdon (ENS Lyon, France), Bernard Marty (CNRS Nancy France), and Martin Novak (Czech Geological Survey, Czech Republic). The organizing company is Cambridge Publications under the responsibility of Paul Beattie.
