20th General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association

The International Mineralogical Association (IMA), the oldest international scientific body of mineral sciences, organised its 1st General Meeting (GM) in 1959. The next meeting of the recently quadrennial world conference series, the 20th IMA GM, is standing on, and will pay tribute to the solid basis built up by the results of two complete generations of mineral scientists, having met traditionally at IMA GMs.

Today the special skills and viewpoints of mineral scientists are inevitable when solid matter is present in a system. Whatever is its origin: natural, environmental, life-related or man-made; whatever is its size: nanoparticles in the atmosphere/human body, or the continental plates: its behaviour, properties and interactions, its usefulness, beauty, value or risk are determined by its bulk and surface structure and chemistry, and by its texture.