Greetings from IMA President

Dear friends of the IMA,

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Let me take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt greetings and sincere gratitude for your continued support throughout the year.
We recently held an active Annual Council Meeting remotely (see the photo below), during which we engaged in very productive and in-depth discussions on recent activities, including IMA 2026 Nanjing, IMA 2030, as well as the activities of IMA committees, commissions, and working groups. I would like to share with you some of the key topics discussed at the meeting.
I am pleased to inform you that a new member country, Costa Rica—led by the chair of the national mineralogical group, Dr. Guillermo E. Alvarado—has joined the IMA. This marks the first member country from Central America and the third from Latin America. Congratulations! Costa Rica also presented an excellent activity report for our Annual Council Meeting in November.

IMA 2026 Nanjing (20–24 August 2026) is currently one of our most important topics. With eight months remaining until the Nanjing General Assembly, preparations are progressing well. The call for session proposals has now closed, and more than 40 attractive sessions have been proposed by many friends of the IMA, as well as by our commissions and working groups. I sincerely thank all of you for your excellent session proposals, which will greatly contribute to the success of the Nanjing meeting.
Professor Xiancai Lu, Second Vice President of the IMA and Chair of the Nanjing Local Organizing Committee, has decided on generous support for invited speakers in your sessions, as outlined below:
Invited Speaker Arrangements: Each session should include at least two invited speakers. If a session includes more than 20 presentations, the number of invited speakers should not exceed 15% of the total number of presentations. In consideration of the high travel costs for overseas participants, up to two overseas invited speakers per session will be eligible for support.
Support Policy for Invited Speakers: For the eligible overseas invited speakers noted above, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) will offer a full waiver of the abstract submission fee and a 40% discount on the registration fee. Session convenors are kindly requested to begin considering potential invited speakers for their sessions. The detailed meeting schedule and program will be announced soon.
The IMA Medal Committee has selected Dr. Björn Mysen of the Carnegie Institution of Washington as the recipient of the 2025 IMA Medal of Excellence. Congratulations! We are also currently discussing revisions to the Medal Committee’s guidelines to further improve the committee’s operations.

Miyawakiite, selected as the Mineral of the Year 2024 by the CNMNC Selection Committee, also deserves our congratulations. The Mediation Committee has made important contributions this year as well, advising the CNMNC to revise its guidelines in order to better document the geological background and origin of new minerals during the certification process.
Under the initiative of the Commission on Physics of Minerals (CPM), the IMA participated in the African Synchrotron Radiation Conference (AfLS) and delivered several lectures in November. This activity aims to promote the establishment of synchrotron radiation facilities in Africa, and the IMA fully supports this important initiative.

We were also actively involved in several IUGS programs this year. The IMA participated in the third 100 Geological Heritage selection program and established a committee of experts in mineralogy. We solicited outstanding candidate sites from Council members and submitted four excellent nominations. In addition, the IMA, together with the Mineral Informatics Working Group, is actively engaged in the IUGS Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) program.

Significant progress has been made in selecting the venue for IMA 2030, one of the most important issues for the Association. Our Canadian colleagues are currently evaluating potential host locations and suitable organizing scientists. I am confident that we can look forward to an excellent proposal from the Canadian team to host the 2030 General Assembly.
These activities highlight the remarkable achievements of the IMA during this term, and as President of the IMA, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone involved. As we approach the New Year 2026, I am pleased to share these updates on IMA activities with you, and I look forward to continuing our collaborative efforts to advance the mission of the IMA.
Wishing you a prosperous and productive year ahead.

Eiji Ohtani
President, IMA
Department of Earth Science, Tohoku University,
Sendai, 980-8578, Japan.