SETAC Italian Language Branch: A Highly Active Group!
Paola Grenni; National Research Council, Rome; Ilaria Corsi, Università di Siena; Federica Cacciatore, ISPRA CN-COS Area MLG; Silvia Franzellitti, University of Bologna; Stefania Marcheggiani, Camilla Puccinelli, Istituto Superiore di Sanità; Silvia Casini, Università di Siena; Claudia Vaj, Corteva Agriscience Regulatory
The SETAC Italian Language Branch (ILB) is a very active group. In September 2022, the first national workshop was organized and hosted by the University of Siena under the presidency of Silvia Casini. The workshop was well received with more than 70 attendees; the platforms and the subsequent discussions were groundbreaking and provided new energy to the branch.
The workshop covered a range of topics, including the use of several bioassays, in silico tools, environment and health, molecular modeling, ecological risk assessment and analyses on natural microbial communities for evaluating old and new contaminants.
For years, the branch has also supported a student award, funded by SETAC Europe, which includes a free registration for the SETAC Europe Annual meeting. The prize was established to promote SETAC and SETAC ILB to our students and to involve them in both societies' activities. This year, it has been already launched for the SETAC Annual Meeting in Seville 2024!
This year, we met in Dublin at the SETAC annual meeting and online on 8 May, where the new council and the new president, Ilaria Corsi, from Siena University, started their work. Stefania Marcheggiani from ISS was also designated as the vice president.
Upcoming events
The 2nd Workshopof the SETAC ILB will be held on 11 October in Rome and hosted by the National Research Council (CNR) in the prestigious Aula Marconi of the main CNR Building (Piazzale Aldo Moro, 7). It will follow a similar format to the previous workshop held in 2022, featuring platforms and posters. The call for abstracts will cover all the topics you can find at a SETAC Europe meeting and include all the activities carried out by the members of the SETAC ILB. We hope to increase the possibility of external participation. The student award will be assigned based on the extended abstract submitted for the workshop and a three-minute speech presented during a dedicated session of the workshop. More info and details are available at our website. The workshop will also include novel topics like aquatic ecosystems and emerging and re-emerging biological and chemical contaminants, biomarkers and climate change.
The SETAC ILB has also organized a thematic workshop titled “Zero pollution: Ecotoxicology for safe and sustainable remediation,” which will be held from 9:00–13:00 CEST on Friday, 22 September at the RemTech Europe Conference in Ferrara Fiere, Italy, and it will be also available online.
This free half-day workshop is about the key roles played by ecotoxicology in the hazard assessment of polluted or treated environmental matrices along with the efficiency, sustainability, and environmental safety of current and future remediation techniques. New challenges associated with emerging pollutants and complex mixtures remediation either in soil or water require complementary tools to enhance assessment methods and validate remediation techniques efficiency. The workshop will promote knowledge about ecotoxicology that is used with the aim of restoring contaminated environments, sharing it across different environmental sectors, including consultants, regulatory agencies, industry and academia, with a common goal as the implementation of environmental policy and management in the field of safe and sustainable remediation. The workshop is free of charge for those working in academia or government and for the general public. Private companies should please visit the RemTech website.
Finally, several events were supported by SETAC ILB in 2023:
- Corso di Aggiornamento su Sperimentazione Clinica di Fase I: Situazione Attuale e Prospettive Future
- Emergenza Qualità dell'Aria
- XVII Convegno Associazione Rete Italiana LCA
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We wish the new president, Ilaria Corsi, and the council a successful term!
Author's contact: [email protected]