International Medical Geology Association
ABOUT IMGA
The International Medical Geology Association aims to provide a network and a forum to bring together the combined expertise of geologists and earth scientists, environmental scientists, toxicologists, epidemiologists and medical specialists, in order to characterise the properties of geological processes and agents, the dispersal of geological material and their effects on human populations.
The IMGA governance bodies are the General Assembly, the Executive Committee and the Supervisor Board. The General assembly of members shall be convened by the General Assembly Board. The Executive Committee administers and represents the Association. The Supervisor Board has the role of supervise the accounts and reports of the association. The General Assembly Board, the Executive Committee and the Supervisor Board are elected by the General Assembly for mandates of two years up to a total of four years.
Governance Structure
Executive Comittee
Chair
Diego Hernán Fridman
Clinical Research Department Fundación Centro de Estudios Infectológicos
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Email: diegofridman@yahoo.com; dfridman@stamboulian.com.ar
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Chair
Diego Hernán Fridman |
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Co-Chair for Geological SciencesElena Gimenez Forcada IGME - Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (Geological Survey of Spain) Salamanca, Spain
Email: e.gimenez@igme.es |
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Co-Chair for Medical SciencesChaosheng Zhang National University of Ireland, Galway Galway, Ireland
Email: chaosheng.zhang@nuigalway.ie |
General Secretary
Carla Patinha Geosciences Department, University of Aveiro Aveiro, Portugal
Email: cpatinha@ua.pt
Treasurer
Nuno Durães Geosciences Department, University of Aveiro Aveiro, Portugal
Email: nunoduraes@ua.pt
Councillors
Eduardo Ferreira da Silva
Geosciences Department, University of Aveiro
Aveiro, Portugal
Email: eafsilva@ua.pt
Akinade Shadrach Olatunji University of Ibadan Ibadan, Nigeria
Email: akinadeshadrach@yahoo.com
Iosif Volfson Medical Geology Division, RosGeo Moscow, Russia
Email: mgeolog1955@mail.ru
Rita Salgueiro Geology Department, University of Federal do Ceará Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
Email: geo.ritasalgueiro@gmail.com
Xinbin Feng State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences Guiyang, China
Email: fengxinbin@vip.gyig.ac.cn
Ines Tomašek Department of Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel Brussels, Belgium
Email: ines.tomasek@outlook.com
General Assembly
Chair
María Aurora Armienta
Geophysics Institute, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Mexico City, México
Email: aurora.armienta@gmail.com
Co-Chair
José Centeno Director, Division of Biology, Chemistry, and Materials Science (DBCMS) Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories (OSEL) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Email: jose.centeno@fda.hhs.gov
Secretary
Ester Sztein U.S. National Committees for the Geosciences Board on International Scientific Organizations of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Washington, D.C., USA
Email: esztein@nas.edu
Audit Committee
Chair
Nelly Mañay
Director, Specialised Centre for Chemical Toxicology
University of the Republic
Montevideo, Uruguay
Email: nmanay@fq.edu.uy
Member 1
Alejandro Villalobos Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua Chihuahua, Mexico
Email: avillalobos@uach.mx
Member 2
Theophilus C. Davies Specialised Centre for Chemical Toxicology Department of Geology, University of Nigeria at Nsukka Nigeria
Email: theo.clavellpr3@gmail.com
IMGA Support
Editor-in-Chief
Medical Geology Newsletter
Mark Cave
Geochemistry and Applied Statistics, British Geological Survey
Nottingham, UK
Email: mrca@bgs.ac.uk
Chapter Committee
Chaosheng Zhang National University of Ireland, Galway Galway, Ireland
Email: chaosheng.zhang@nuigalway.ie
Webmaster
Lara Gracia Creazione
Email: webmaster@medicalgeology.org
IMGA Chapters are groups within a region bringing together people in an area (city, country, etc.) or in an organization (university, government agency, etc.) interested in medical geology. All members of the Chapter must be members of the Association. A Chapter must consist of at least five (5) members. To be recognized as a formal Chapter the members must send a request to the IMGA board. Upon approval a certificate of recognition will be issued.
Chapters are a way to locally facilitate the growth of medical geology. The concept of developing Chapters is a fundamental basis by which larger societies strengthen their regional and eventually their national development. Members of Chapters pay individual dues to IMGA. All affiliated organisations, including Chapters, must send regular reports for the newsletter. A certain amount of the membership dues paid can be requested by the Chapters for their activities. Actually the IMGA have 28 chapters:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- China-Ireland
- Colombia
- Denmark
- Egypt
- France
- Ghana
- Haiti
- Iran
- Italy
- Japan
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Peru
- Portugal
- Russia
- South of Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Taiwan
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uruguay
We have members from following countries/regions:
History
IMGA in its present form was founded in January 2004, but began as an idea ten years before in 1996 when a working group on Medical Geology was established by IUGS.
Its primary aim was to increase awareness among scientists, medical specialists and the general public on the importance of geological factors for health and wellbeing. It was recognised that the limited extent of cooperation and communication among these groups restricted the ability of scientists and public health workers to solve a range of complex environmental health problems.