Countdown to SETAC Asia-Pacific 2026 in Tsukuba: Join Us in Japan's City of Science
Zuzanna Neziri, Executive Director SETAC Asia-Pacific
The SETAC Asia-Pacific 15th Biennial Meeting is headed to Tsukuba – Japan’s celebrated “City of Science” – from 20–23 September. Under the theme “Rethinking Environmental Balance for the Future,” delegates from across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond will convene in a purpose-built research hub just 45 minutes from Tokyo, home to nearly 30 national research institutes and the University of Tsukuba.
Abstract submission is now open through 7 May. Whether your work lives in environmental toxicology, chemistry, risk assessment, sustainability or policy, this is your invitation to help shape the conversation.
Plenary Speakers Frame the Week’s Conversation
Four plenary speakers anchor the meeting, one featured each day – distinct voices spanning the Asia-Pacific region and the full arc of environmental science, setting the tone for the program: a pioneering toxicologist from Japan, a water quality and urban systems researcher from Singapore, a leading practitioner and environmental auditor from Australia, and an environmental chemist from China. Together they reflect the meeting's commitment to multisectoral balance, gender representation and geographic diversity — and what follows in the sessions, posters and corridor conversations threads back to the themes they raise.
Specially Appointed Professor at the Graduate School of Nanobioscience, Yokohama City University, Taisen Iguchi will open the meeting with his plenary on Sunday, 20 September. A globally recognized pioneer in endocrine disruption science, his work using medaka, Daphnia and rodent models has helped define how endocrine-disrupting chemicals alter developmental processes in wildlife and humans, shaping the field from its earliest days. Beyond the laboratory, he has been a central figure in translating mechanistic toxicology into policy: he chairs Japan's Ministry of the Environment Committee on Endocrine Disrupting Effects of Chemical Substances, which guides the country’s EXTEND programs, and he has chaired OECD working groups developing international test guidelines for endocrine disruptors. His career bridges the full arc from molecular biology to global regulatory frameworks.
Provost's Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Professor Karina Gin Yew-Hoong is one of the Asia-Pacific region’s leading voices on water quality in urban and tropical systems. Holding an ScD jointly from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, her research group at NUS tackles some of the most urgent questions in modern water science: the fate and transport of emerging contaminants including PFAS and pharmaceuticals, the spread of antimicrobial resistance through the urban water cycle, harmful algal blooms in tropical reservoirs and wastewater-based epidemiology — work that drew international attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her perspective, reflected in her talk on Monday, 21 September, speaks directly to the challenges facing rapidly urbanizing cities across Asia.
Senior Principal Risk Assessor at Senversa and a Fellow of the Australasian College of Toxicology and Risk Assessment (ACTRA), Carolyn Brumley brings more than 27 years of cross-sector experience spanning research, regulation and consulting. A former Deputy Chief Environmental Scientist and Acting Chief Environmental Scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Victoria, Australia, she currently sits on contaminated land auditor advisory panels for the Victorian and New South Wales EPAs and serves on the Australian Government’s Advisory Committee on the Environmental Management of Industrial Chemicals. She also co-chairs the Risk Assessment Specialist Interest Group of the Australasian Land and Groundwater Association. Few speakers embody the science-policy-practice interface as completely, and her plenary on Tuesday, 22 September, will bring a practitioner’s voice grounded in real-world decision-making to the Tsukuba stage.
Professor Guibin Jiang will close the plenary series on Wednesday, 23 September. An Academician of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and inaugural Editor-in-Chief of Environment & Health, he is among the most cited environmental chemists in the world. As Director of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, his research has shaped how the field identifies, measures and understands persistent toxic substances – from legacy POPs and mercury to PFAS alternatives, organometallics and the environmental and health impacts of nanomaterials. A three-time recipient of the Chinese National Natural Science Award, Jiang brings a long-term and forward-looking perspectives of environmental chemistry in the Asia-Pacific region.
A Program in Motion
The four-day program in Tsukuba pairs scientific exchange with opportunities to connect. Sunday, 20 September, features a full day of workshops ahead of the opening ceremony and the first plenary. Monday through Wednesday, five parallel tracks run morning and afternoon, with tea breaks and lunches set in the exhibition and poster hall, keeping the science moving between rooms.
Two special sessions will run during the week: one spotlighting the International Board of Environmental Risk Assessors (IBERA), SETAC's global certification program for environmental risk assessors, the second featuring the SETAC journals, where editors will share insights on publishing and connect with prospective authors. Wednesday concludes with the final plenary, a last round of sessions and the Closing Ceremony.
Alongside the scientific program, the meeting will offer a full calendar of networking and community events. Daily poster sessions and exhibition engagement will run during tea and lunch breaks, the Sunday evening Welcome Reception will open the meeting, and the Monday evening banquet will bring the community together in true SETAC fashion.
Delegates will also find space to engage with the emerging topics shaping the future of environmental science — digital innovation, transdisciplinary approaches, and the integration of chemistry, toxicology, engineering and policy that the meeting's theme calls for.
Tsukuba: More Than a Venue
Hosting the SETAC Asia-Pacific biennial meeting in Tsukuba is no coincidence. Developed in the 1970s and 1980s as Japan’s planned answer to concentrated research capacity, Tsukuba Science City now accounts for a staggering share of the country’s public research and development activity. Among its residents are the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan's core environmental research institute since 1974; the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST); the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS); the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) Tsukuba Campus; the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA); and the University of Tsukuba. In short, delegates will be surrounded by the very institutions driving environmental science in this region.
The city itself is compact, walkable and international, with thousands of foreign researchers in residence at any given time. It is easily reached from central Tokyo in about 45 minutes on the Tsukuba Express, making pre- or post-meeting travel to Tokyo, Kyoto or beyond a natural extension of your trip. September in Tsukuba brings mild late-summer weather, and nearby Mount Tsukuba, one of Japan's most famous mountains, offers hiking and sweeping views of the Kanto Plain.
Join Us in Tsukuba
The abstract submission deadline is Thursday, 7 May – just weeks away. Whether you are presenting your latest research, joining a session discussion, catching up with colleagues or forging new collaborations, SETAC Tsukuba promises a vibrant and impactful meeting in a city built for science.