Dear Members,
I do hope that you are all progressing well in your careers, and for those members who are now retired, that you all remain in good health. It has already been a very busy year for the Institutes Operating Divisions and Regional Branches.
YICorr has been especially active with the launch on 25th January of its 2024 Young Engineer Programme (YEP) at Wood Thilsted in London under the watchful eyes of Danny Burkle / Izabela Gajewska / Anthony Setiadi / Praveena Nanthakumaran / Stephen Shapcott (all former YEP graduates and stakeholders), which l was very pleased to attend alongside Jane Lomas, our Hon. Secretary and also Yunnan Gao our Vice President. It was very encouraging to see our twenty-five New Student Members so focussed and ready to learn. Jane presented very engagingly to the assembled audience on the Fundamentals of Corrosion. Our YEP bi-annual event, is a very much in demand, a year-long series of in-person meetings designed to provide valuable insights and networking opportunities for young engineers in the field of corrosion, including a major case study and the opportunity to visit the AMPP25 conference and its leadership programme for the winning group generously funded by BP. support of this AMPP/ICorr co-operation l have been in recent discussions with the AMPP board regarding further event and training opportunities.
Behind the scenes and alongside our Vice President Yunnan Gao 
l have been actively exploring New UK Branches and areas for
co-operation with other Global corrosion societies and Universities overseas, in order to expand ICorr’s global offering and seeking increased engagement with our overseas members. The first of these Joint Events will take place on Tuesday 28th May 2024 when Susan Jacob of OneGas, Tulsa, Oklahoma will speak to us on a new risk assessment model for buried pipeline coating systems. AMPP is also keen to co-operate with ICorr in respect of pursuing a common standard / level of competence for Passive Fire Protection (PFP) Training. During the last quarter, we have also reached out to the Chinese Society for Corrosion and Protection (CSCP) and representatives of Qatar University, again for both event and training co-operation, with joint activities likely to start in Q4, 2024. I outlined some of these developments in my recent ‘State of the Nation’ presentation to our London Branch in March. We especially welcome, at this time, the new Wales and South-West Branch and Committee under the splendid chair of Sarah Bagnall. Their inaugural event on 21st March was a tremendous success, and it is clear that they have very solid support from within their region and we congratulate them for forming such a strong committee in such a short space of time. Please visit their webpage at: Wales and South West Branch – Institute of Corrosion (icorr.org) They have several more interesting Events upcoming so do keep an eye on the ICorr Events Calendar at: https://www.icorr.org/events/
Our training divisions continue to go from strength to strength and we must pay tribute at this time to our Cathodic Protection and Surface Treatment Scheme Managers Bill Whittaker and John Fletcher for their continued progression and also to our HQ team that support them.
Finally, I must express our sincere thanks to the Correx board for their generous financial support of the Institute during the past financial year from their own training operations. That only remains for me to pass on my best wishes and thanks to you all for the approaching summer ICorr activities and for making those all possible.
Stephen Tate, President: Institute of Corrosion,
president@icorr.org
