Welcome to another jam-packed edition of Corrosion Management! I’ve had to content myself with reading the online version of the magazine in recent months as the printed version is delivered to my office at NPL and I’m still not permitted to access the site. The online version is fantastic but I have to say I do miss having a printed copy to leaf through. There has been debate for many years within Council about whether the magazine should transition to electronic format – at the moment the consensus is that most members still prefer to receive the printed version. However, this may change in the future, particularly as the demographic of the Institute continues to shift, and we are continuously reviewing the options. It may be that we decide to distribute the magazine by email to those who wish to receive it in electronic format, while keeping the printed version for those who prefer this option. If you have any views or suggestions on this please do not hesitate to contact our Editor, Brian Goldie.
As the world cautiously emerges from the Covid-19 lockdown, I’m pleased to say that our operations are returning to something like normal. Our Head Office at Corrosion House in Northampton has been open for several weeks now, with appropriate social distancing, protective equipment and sanitisation arrangements in place. I would like to thank Denise Aldous for her sterling work in coordinating working arrangements in the office during the lockdown to ensure that any disruption in our service to members was minimised.
This gives me great confidence that we will be able to transition smoothly back to lockdown again in the event of a second wave of the virus. Our classroom-based training courses have also restarted, both at our main training provider IMechE AR in Sheffield and at our international training facilities. Like many organisations and businesses, we expect to see a dip in revenue in 2020 but I’m encouraged by the fact that the preliminary accounts for the financial year to the end of June suggest that our finances are still holding up well, despite the recent significant investment in the upgrade of our training course offering. This bodes well for the longer term and I and the other Trustees are cautiously optimistic that we can ride out any temporary downturn arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
One thing you can do to help is to renew your annual membership! These are difficult times but we rely on your subscriptions to deliver the services, activities and events that you expect and deserve as members of a professional society. I greatly value the sense of community and professional pride that membership of ICorr entails and I know that this is reflected across the entire breadth of our membership.
Meanwhile, the success of our online events continues apace, with the Aberdeen Branch holding its second Week of Webinars in conjunction with the Marine Corrosion Forum, and delegates on the Young Engineer Programme attending informative lectures on Cathodic Protection (by Trevor Osborne) and Fire Protection (by Simon Thurlbeck). I would also like to draw your attention to two major conferences coming up in September that will be held online for the first time, the Corrosion Science Symposium (Sept 14-17) and EuroCorr (Sept 7-11). Registration for the CSS is free and I would encourage you to attend as this will be a unique opportunity to catch up on the latest cutting-edge research in corrosion presented by informed and enthusiastic PhD students (see news item later in this magazine – editor).
Two prestigious awards will be presented at these conferences. The first is the U.R. Evans Award, the premier scientific award of the Institute of Corrosion, which will be presented at the CSS to Prof. Robert Cottis of the University of Manchester. The second is the European Corrosion Medal, the major scientific award of the European Federation of Corrosion, which will be presented at EuroCorr to Prof. Stuart Lyon of the University of Manchester. This represents a very impressive double for the university and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Bob and Stuart for these significant achievements.
