It is with great pleasure that I welcome to you to Canada, New Brunswick,
Fredericton, and the University of New Brunswick (UNB). The Association of Applied
Geochemists (AAG) has a long and prestigious history with this being the 24th
symposium organized to date. As many of you know, UNB hosted one of the first
regional meetings of the association, back in 1976. Our group at UNB has grown in
different ways since then, very much reflecting the growth of the discipline and the
Society AAG. Together with the International Association of GeoChemistry (IAGC)
and International Association of Geoanalysts, AAG has partnered to build a broad as
possible IAGS meeting to meet the needs of industry, as well as those of research
organizations, including universities and governments. This level of cooperation
helped produce this cross disciplinary perspective, needed to build for the future of
applied geoscience, from mineral exploration and development through to protecting
the environment that we are intimately aware of. It is this same perspective that also
helped build the environment for student’s research to be highlighted at this meeting
like never before, with generous sponsors, who helped make that feasible; it is in all
our best interests to be fostering this critical interest in our research community,
especially considering the demographic issues facing us in the near future. I’m
hoping that this level of mutual cooperation and respect foster a new era of
collaborations, as to do it alone is not a viable option. I personally thank all those
contributors, reviewers, and editors for their submissions and excellence with the
process of producing this diverse and in depth program and the derivative volumes
produced here. It is always the team effort, which brings alive team spirit and team
success that is the key to moving this monumentally forward, so kudos to my team
for making this IAGS as best as it can be.