European Association of Geochemistry

Parting Words At the end of December 2012, my term of offi ce ends and Chris Ballentine will take over as president of the European A s s o c i a t i o n o f Geochemistry. Over the past two years, the activities of the EAG have grown to make our Society more prominent on the European and international geochemistry scene. I would like to acknowledge Past Presidents Eric Oelkers and Alex Halliday for having given so much impetus to these changes. The last few Goldschmidt conferences in Europe have had great success in terms of attendance and quality of science, thanks to the organization put in place by Alex. The launch by Eric and his team of Geochemical Perspectives, a new publication in geochemistry that is bound to gain the respect of our community, came as a result of our refl ection about the evolution of scientifi c publishing. Scientifi c publishing cannot solely rely on companies that are more interested in fi nancial outcomes than advancing knowledge. The EAG also started bridging with scientifi c communities in Eastern Europe with its 2012 Distinguished Lecture tour. Tim Elliott spoke in Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania on various topics of solid-Earth geochemistry and cosmochemistry. A similar initiative is being launched in Africa, with the collaboration of the Geochemical Society. The EAG has more members than ever, and many of them are seriously committed to the growth of our Society. In parallel, the EAG has carefully reached a more viable fi nancial model for its operation, but it is still too early to consider additional initiatives. To make our new activities viable in the long term, we are constantly searching for new people to put energy and ideas into our organization. I invite all people interested to contact us if they would like to help.