The President Writes.
Happy New Year to One and All!
This being the first of my "President Writes ..." pieces I was naturally curious what I how I should approach it. Should I come over as all serious, or maybe be a wee bit whimsical? Should I list the Institutes' achievements over the last few years, or maybe instead outline the vision for the next few years? Of course, what I really should do is start by thanking the immediate past president David Deacon who, amply supported by the Trustees: John O'Shea, Jim Burnell-Gray, Sue Impey and Tony Collins have led the Institute through some recent testing times.

At Head Office the support of Cerri, Gill and Heather with Cerri as the main day-to-day point of contact for general Institute enquiries, is gratefully acknowledged. With the additional help of Brian Weston on financial matters we have an excellent back-office team. 1 should also thank the many front-line Branch Officers without whose unstinting support, often over many years, the Institute would have been unable to survive. I can only mention the few that I know here; in Yorkshire: Bob Akid and before him Roger Hudson; in Scotland: Colin Reid and Mike Pursell in Aberdeen; in Wales: Peter Morgan; in the North West: Chris Atkins; Trevor Osborne, of course, in London; Brenda Fitzsimmons in the North East and Tony Betts in Dublin. For all the other names that I missed, or whom I do not know, my apologies for not mentioning you here. My thanks go to you all, and I hope to get to know you better over the next few years. It is my intention to visit all ICorr Branches during my tenure as President - specific invitations are, of course, always welcome.

The new Trustees, who were mostly introduced in the last issue of CM, are myself, as President and John Nicholls as Vice-President. We were unable to confirm the new Hon. Secretary then, but I am now pleased that Steve Mabbutt of Cranfield University has agreed to take over from Jim Burnell-Gray. Steve did his PhD under the supervision of our Technical Secretary, Douglas Mills, at the University of Northampton, then spent several years at North Dakota State University in Fargo studying organic coatings. He is now at Cranfield researching high-temperature materials performance. The other Trustees continuing are Tony Collins as Hon. Treasurer and Sue Impey as Asst. Hon. Secretary. Of course, I will also need the help, advice and assistance of David Deacon as immediate Past President, John O'Shea, who continues in a roving role for the next year, and Jim Burnell-Gray, who has agreed to stay on to assist Steve as Secretary for the next year.

Conventionally, I should now say a few words about what the Institute plans to do next. Well, we have some interesting initiatives upcoming; in particular we are developing further the range, breadth and depth of our well-regarded and profitable courses, with some tailored to specific industries and a hoped extension of course provision directly into South-East Asia. These activities have, in the past, generated a good source of additional income for the Institute and the new initiatives should build on these successes.

I should also report on several major upcoming conferences that we are involved with Nationally (that is in addition to meetings programmes organised by local branches). UK Corrosion 2005 will be held this year during September in the Manchester Conference Centre in association with the annual (46th) Corrosion Science Symposium. The three divisions of the Institute will be active during this event. I am pleased to report that the Corrosion and Protection Centre and the Materials Performance Centre (MFC), both in the School of Materials at Manchester University, have agreed to promote the conference. In particular, the MPC will support sessions on corrosion problems in power generation plant and also on nuclear waste disposal (Corrosion Engineering Division). The Corrosion Science Division will hold, in parallel session, its annual research symposium during which the UR Evans Award of the Institute will be presented to Prof. Dr. Martin Stratmann, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research in Dusseldorf, Germany. Of course, the Coatings Division will not be left out and will showcase novel areas and applications in coatings integrity. I do hope that you will be able to support this important event.

Although Corrosion 2005 is the closest event, we are also supporting, with the Institute of Materials (IOM), a 2-day conference on Weld Integrity to be held in April 2006, and importantly, we are leading the bid to hold Eurocorr in 2008 in Edinburgh. This last initiative is likely to provide a tremendous showcase for ICorr in Europe but requires careful and extensive planning to bring it of well. We will know whether our bid has been successful at the end of March.

Final thoughts, as I sit here on Burns' Day (25th January) contemplating a dram of rather fine Islay malt (Ardbeg actually), I am reminded of the Scots Gaelic "uisge beatha" for "aqua vitae" or "water of life". Perhaps we might all remember that water also gives life to electrochemistry and, in so doing, also gives life (and indeed a living) to us.

Cheers!
Stuart Lyon
Manchester, 25th January