The President Writes

I hope you are all enjoying the summer weather and trust that it will be possible for everyone to take a well-earned break at some point. The battle against corrosion never ends but it’s important that we all have the opportunity to recharge our batteries from time to time.
I was pleased to see such a great turn-out at the formal opening of the new Corrosion House on 6th June. The weather played its part, with a warm and sunny afternoon in Northampton allowing the attendees to gather in good spirits around the front door of the building for the official ribbon cutting ceremony. We were also delighted to recognise the tremendous contribution of two stalwarts of the Institute in the purchase of this, and the previous incarnation of Corrosion House, by naming the meeting room and the training room in their honour. To find out more you will need to read the report on the event in this issue!
One of the other highlights of the day was the formal signing of a new training provision agreement between ICorr and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Argyll Ruane (IMechE AR). This has been over a year in the making and I would like to thank Sarah Vasey, David Mobbs, Brian Wyatt and John Fletcher for their unstinting efforts in bringing it to fruition. Revenue from training courses makes up a significant fraction of our income and we see the continued partnership with IMechE AR as key to achieving further growth in both existing and emerging markets.
On the subject of training, it was with regret that Council recently accepted the resignation of Chris Atkins as Chair of the Professional Development, Training and Certification (PDTC) committee. Over the past few years Chris has devoted a huge amount of time and effort to ensure that ICorr courses are fit-for-purpose and the correct governance is in place. I would like to put on record my sincere thanks for the great work he has done and extend a warm welcome to his successor, David Horrocks.
Our student numbers have exploded over the past couple of years, increasing to 213 at the last count. This is largely thanks to the efforts of former Young ICorr Chair Chris Bridge, who arranged visits to the Materials Science Department at the University of Oxford to sign up undergraduate students for free membership of the Institute. His successor Simon Bowcock is now rolling this out to other universities and we are looking for volunteers for these visits. If you can spare the time to visit your alma mater or local university to speak to students about the benefits of ICorr membership, please get in touch with him via the Northampton office.
The Institute continues to recognise excellence in corrosion science and engineering through our prestigious international awards and I am pleased to say that this year, for the first time, our two premier awards will be presented at the same event. This has come about due to a joint meeting between the 60th Corrosion Science Symposium and the annual Corrosion Engineering Division Working Day, which will be held in conjunction with Electrochem 2019 at the University of Strathclyde, on 26th-28th August. During the conference, Prof. Tetsuo Shoji will receive the 2019 U.R. Evans Award, while Dr Steve Paterson will be presented with the 2019 Paul McIntyre Award. I look forward to congratulating both of them in person for these significant achievements!
A resumé of their work is given in the current issue of Corrosion Magazine (editor).
ICorr President, Gareth Hinds.