75th Jubilee meeting of the Clay Minerals Group of the Mineralogical Society of the UK and Ireland
The Clay Minerals Group (CMG) has been celebrating its 75th Jubilee during 2022. The CMG was founded during a meeting held at Burlington House (Geological Society), London, on 24th January 1947. The first chair was G.W. Brindley, and the first secretary was D.M.C. McEwan, both names which crop up throughout the history of the group and of the science.
The current Chair and Secretary, Anke Neumann and Helen Pendlowski, respectively, along with Francis Clegg, the main organizer, welcomed everyone to the 2022 Jubilee meeting at London’s Natural History Museum. The role of the group and its officers is to provide opportunities for clay mineralogists from the UK/Ireland and beyond to present their work to a like-minded audience. This has been done consistently and well throughout the past 75 years, with many exciting meetings/presentations and resultant publications. Careful management of the CMG’s finances (including by the current treasurer, Francis Clegg, and David Wray former treasurer, who was also present) has allowed the group to support many speakers, researchers and students over the years.
Simon Kemp, former Secretary and Chairman of the group will write a formal history of the group (building on that by J. Bain from 1997), based on his presentation at the meeting, to be published in Clay Minerals. He noted that Anke Neumann is only the second woman to lead the CMG following Barbara Neumann. The CMG hope that they will not have to wait for a further clay mineralogist named Neumann to become the third female chair!
Full details of the group’s year-long celebrations are shown here. This centrepiece jubilee meeting was held over two days, 25–26 May 2022, and clay mineralogists past and present gathered to celebrate the group’s achievements.
Invited talks included:
- Simon Kemp (British Geological Survey) – A history of the Clay Minerals Group
- Christopher Jeans (University of Cambridge) – How to survive as a clay mineralogist!
- Claire Fialips (TotalEnergies) – Lithofacies-petrophysical-geomechanical relationships in the Vaca Muerta Fm, Neuquen Basin, Argentina
- Chris Greenwell (Durham University) – Chemistry between the sheets – the happy marriage of computer simulation and experimental methods in clay science
- Steve Hillier (The James Hutton Institute) – A tale of two halloysites
- Ian Wilson (Consultant) – A trip around some kaolin and halloysite deposits
Delegates were also treated to a behind the scenes tour at the Natural History Museum before a conference dinner at the Grange Strathmore Hotel. The banquet was attended by Jon Lloyd, the Mineralogical Society President and Sally Gibson, President Elect, both of whom spoke warmly about the importance to the Society of the Clay Minerals Group and how the CMG will be integral to the Society’s future as it approaches its own milestone 150 years of existence (2026).
Jon Lloyd addressing the guests at the banquet
All CMG officers, past and present, who were able to attend the meeting gathered for this photograph. Included left to right are: Dick Merriman, Christopher Jeans, Helen Pendlowski, Francis Clegg, Anke Neumann, Dave Wray, Ian Wilson, Simon Kemp, Steve Hillier, David Morgan and Chris Greenwell. Another, who attended online, was former chair, secretary, treasurer and editor, Derek Bain.
All of those who have helped the CMG throughout its 75 years of existence were acknowledged during the conference.
The strong bond between the journal (Clay Minerals) and the group received particular attention and current joint Principal Editors, George Christidis and Chun-Hui Zhou joined the meeting remotely from their locations in Athens and Zhejiang, respectively.
The usual focus on students and their work was in evidence during the event with excellent presentations during day 2 of the programme. The student presentation prizes were awarded to Hassan Majiya (Sheffield Hallam University) – ‘Bentonite-Chitosan composites or beads: for co-adsorption of lead (Pb) and copper (Cu) from binary aqueous solutions’ (oral presentation) and Max Rose (University of Manchester) ’Controlling and modelling the impact of bentonite microbial communities on steel corrosion during radioactive waste disposal’.
A copy of the programme and abstracts volume is available here.
There was an enjoyable blend of pure and applied science in the programme which reflects rather well the programme for the founding event 75 years previously! Two of the invited speakers (Ian Wilson and Steve Hillier) gave significant time to halloysite, a hot topic in clay mineralogy at present!
Table of contents from the first ever issue of the journal (originally known as the Clay Minerals Bulletin)
Recordings of several of the presentations will be made available via the Society’s YouTube channel in due course.