On September 9-20, Shizhen and Gan attend the International Symposium of Persistent Toxic Substances (ISTPS2026) at Bologna, and subsequently the Dioxin2026 at Riva del Garda in Italy, respectively. Shizhen delivered two talks on the ISTPS and one talk on the Dioxin2026; Gan delivered a keynote speech on the ISTPS and one oral speech on the Dioxin2026. We met many ‘old’ friends on the meetings. After the two conferences, we paid a two-day short visit to Dr Xie Zhiyong of Helmholtz Centrum Hereon located at Geesthacht of Hamburg, Germany, where Gan visited 20 years ago (2007) and Guancai, Zhao Zhen studied. It has been a nice and fruitful trip.
Delivering presentation in ISPTS2026Shizhen delivering her second talk in ISTPS2026Delivering keynote speech in ISPTS2026
The world’s oldest universityItalian opera performance in the opening ceremony at Riva del Garda
Shizhen delivering her speech on the Dioxin2026Delivering a speech in Dioxin2026 at Riva del GardaA group of Chinese delegates to Diozin2026Meet with Tom HarnerWith Roland Weber, and Ramesh Kumar
Shizhen enjoys the picturesque Lake GardaMeet our ‘old’ friend, Dr Heesoo Eun (殷熙洙) who is a Korean expert in PFAS analysis working at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) of Japan at Tsukuba
Gan’s last visit to Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht (HZ-G, now HZ-hereon) was in 2007, almost 20 years agoA lovely porter in the lab of Helmholtz Zentrum hereonLocal cakes in the resting room of HZ hereonMugs are always my favorite collectionDiner by River Elbe (易北河畔), with authentic and delicious Northern Germany cuisines
Chinese restaurant at HamburgA lady with the skyline of Hamburg in the mirrorTransit at Amsterdam
On September 2-4, Shizhen and Gan attaend the International Aerosol Conference 2026 at Xi’an. Gan gave a keynote speech on the idea of triple nexus of PACs-light absorption-toxicity of the extractable organic matter (EOM) in PM2.5. Shizhen gave a special invited talk for the session of Female Scientist Development looking back and forward her academic career and interacting with active female scientists from Europe and Australia. We saw lots of familiar faces, including Professor Kimitaka Kawamura, who has been a good friend of our group looking after Buqing’s study on di- and mono-acids. Haoyu attended and acted as a session organizer. It is a memorable event.
On August 14, an inauguration meeting was held in Beijing for our newly-launched black carbon (BC) program in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. The program SofiBBC named after ‘Source Finder of BTH BC‘ aims at looking at the measurement, source diagnostics of BC and its effects on PM2.5 in the BTH region. The meeting was chaired by professor Jiang Jingkun蒋 靖坤 of Tsinghua University, with experts including professors Tan Zhaofeng谭照峰 (will follow closely the SofiBBC) and Wu Zhijun吴志军 of Peking University, Liu Yongchun刘永春 of Beijing Chemical Engineering University, Yu Xiaolin于晓琳 of Beijing University of S&T, Guo Qingjun郭庆军 of CAS Institute of Geography, Chun Biwu楚碧武 of CAS RCEES and Li Hong李红 of CRAES. The SofiBBC program therefore enters its technical implementation stage. Let’s do it!
