Greetings from the IMA President

Dear friends of IMA,

It is my great honor to be elected to serve as the President of IMA. I join Eiji Ohtani who now assumes the role as past-President, and newly elected First Vice President, Razvan Caracas, and Second Vice President Lee Groat. Hiroaki Ohfuji continues as Secretary, Michele Zema as Communication officer, and Travis Olds as Treasurer. Rounding out the IMA Council are Ross J. Angel, Deshenthree Chetty, Shaunna Morrison, Vincent van Hinsberg and Encarnación Ruiz Agudo.

I am delighted to report that Christian Chopin of CNRS, France has been selected as 2026 IMA Medalist for Excellence in Mineralogical Research. The Medal for Excellence in Mineralogical Research is the highest recognition at IMA. Congratulations Christian!

The 24th General Meeting of the IMA was held in Nanjing, China, from August 20-24, 2026. The meeting was a tremendous success and brought together 789 participants from 29 countries around the world. I thank former Second Vice President, Xiancai Lu, and members of the local organizing committee (LOC) for their hard work that ensured the success of the meeting. Photos from the meeting can be found here: https://m.alltuu.com/album/ab7485a8b488a44ec03a673179e8dafc/?from=qrCode&menu=live

Looking ahead, hold these dates: The next IMA business meetings will be held at the fifth European Mineralogical Conference (EMC) in Brest, France from July 2-7, 2028. This coincides with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the IMA in 1958! Razvan Caracas is representing IMA on the EMC 2028 scientific committee will be working to ensure a strong representation from IMA. I am also pleased to announce that 25th International Mineralogical Association (IMA) Meeting will be held in Vancouver, Canada from 12-16 August 2030. We are currently seeking bids from national societies to host IMA 2034, and preliminary bids must be delivered to Council in time for the meetings in Brest in July 2028.

For me one of the great accomplishments of IMA 2026 was that it provided a showcase for the breadth and depth of mineralogy. Two of our working groups in “Biomineralogy and the Environment” and “Mineral Informatics” were approved by Council as new Commissions. IMA with the LOC were able to support eight students to attend IMA 2026. This doubled the number that were able to support in previous years. It is my goal to at least double our level of support for students to attend IMA 2030. The students are the pipeline to ensure that mineralogy will continue to grow and thrive as a discipline. As highlighted at IMA 2026, this is the most exciting time to be a mineralogist and it is our role as members of IMA to actively promote the mineral sciences.

Nancy Ross, The President of IMA