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.

We are members of IUGS  (International Union of Geological Sciences)

https://www.iugs.org/

Governance Structure

Executive Committee
andreo

Chair

Chaosheng Zhan

School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, University of Galway, Ireland

Email: Chaosheng.Zhang@universityofgalway.ie

Co-Chair for Geological Sciences

Carla Patinha
Geosciences Department, University of Aveiro, Portugal

Email: cpatinha@ua.pt

Co-Chair for Medical Sciences

Temitope Ayodeji Laniyan
Public Health Department: Environmental Health Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.


General Secretary

Elena María Alvareda Migliaro
Departamento del Agua, Responsable del Laboratorio de Agua y Suelos
Departamento del Agua
Centro Universitario Regional Litoral Norte
Universidad de la República, Uruguay.

Email: alvareda@fq.edu.uy


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


Iosif Volfson
Medical Geology Division, RosGeo
Moscow, Russia
Email: mgeolog1955@mail.ru


Xinbin Feng
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guiyang, China
Email: fengxinbin@vip.gyig.ac.cn


Akinade Shadrach Olatunji
University of Ibadan
Ibadan, Nigeria
Email: akinadeshadrach@yahoo.com


Rita Salgueiro
Geology Department, University of Federal do Ceará
Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
Email:  ritasalgueiro@ufc.br


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



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

Co-Chair

Jose A. Centeno
Felow, Royal Society of Chemistry, London, Uk
Honorary Academician, Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery, Andalucia Oriental, Spain
Chair on Medical Geology, Jose A. Centeno Center for Medical Geology, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria
Email: tonycent@comcats.net 

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
Chapters

Editor-in-Chief
Medical Geology Newsletter

Dr Iskhak Farkhutdinov
Chapter Leader of Russia-NIS: ROSGEO. Chairman of the Regional Division of the International Medical Geology Association of Russia and CIS countries. Deputy Director for Science of the Vernadsky State Geological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences Field: influence of geological factors on human health, TEDx speaker on Medical Geology theme in 2019. 


Webmaster

Lara Gracia Creazione
Email: webmaster@medicalgeology.org

Chapters

Chapter Committee

Chaosheng Zhang
National University of Ireland, Galway
Galway, Ireland
Email: chaosheng.zhang@nuigalway.ie

Chapters

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:

We have members from following countries/regions:

Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Mexico, Nigeria, Oman, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, South of Africa, Spain, Sri lanka, Taiwan, Turkey, Uruguay, USA, UK, Ukraine, Zambia and Zimbabwe

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.

History and emergence of IMGA