Anneliese Hodge was awarded a Messel Travel Bursary to attend the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) annual meeting held in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Here she tells us about her highlights from the conference.
"The meeting gathered approximately 3,000 participants from around the world, including academics, industry professionals and policymakers from the fields of environmental and human toxicology, chemistry, ecology and marine, terrestrial and freshwater biology. This years’ meeting theme was ‘Embrace the outlier: In science, regulations and networks’, with emphasis on unexpected, outlying data that may point to unknown, yet potentially interesting perspectives that develop our understanding of scientific concepts. The conference was spread across 5 days, with platform presentations, poster sessions and poster corner/spotlight presentations in the following science tracks: Environmental and human toxicology; Ecotoxicology becomes stress ecology; Environmental chemistry and exposure assessment; Ecological and human health risk assessment of chemicals, Mixtures and stressors; Life cycle assessment and footprinting; Environmental policy, risk management and science communication; Moving beyond – cross cutting themes, emerging, transdisciplinary and outlying topics.
"The SCI travel bursary enabled me to present my research on the physiological and ecotoxicological effects of the mineral ultraviolet (UV) filter nano-titanium dioxide on temperate marine microalgae. I presented my work in a poster session, and had lots of engagement from fellow academics and industry representatives. This stimulated conversations, new connections and collaborations, and provided me with a platform to share some of my PhD work in a scientific setting. Attending the conference also allowed me to learn more about other international work taking place in the field, including discussions with individuals working on similar topics, and those working in entirely different areas of environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology.
"Over the course of the week, I attended various talks and poster presentations. Among my favourite talks were within the session: ‘Advancing the Environmental Risk Assessment and Management of Cosmetics, Sunscreens and Personal Care Products’, as this topic area is very related to my own research. In addition to this session, there were a number of interesting and thought provoking talks in: ‘Coastal Environments: At the Intersection of Human Activities and the Open Ocean’, including modelling and monitoring the sources, pathways, and fate of pharmaceuticals in the North Adriatic Sea, and another on land to reef pollution. Another area that piqued my interested were life cycle assessments of cosmetics and personal care products. There were several talks in this area, specifically focussing on the generation of environmental scoring schemes for products to help consumers make scientifically informed decisions in their purchasing behaviour.
"For the posters, some that really stood out to me were on the topics of biological assessments of military contamination in the oceans, behaviour based estimates of sunscreen derived UV filters in Japan, cocaine pollution altering the movement of Atlantic salmon, UV filter contamination in indoor dust across residential and educational settings, and finally, plastic additives in fishing gear.
"Each morning session was followed by some lovely refreshments, with all dietary requirements catered for. Coffee and tea were flowing, and the catered lunch options were delicious. It was great to use this time to network, and generate connections with new individuals who also share the same passion for environmental toxicology and chemistry.
"Attending the conference allowed me to practice my science communication and presentation skills, and engage with a wide range of individuals from a host of international organisations. I particularly loved the conversations that were provoked from my poster presentation, with a steady stream of people engaging with my research and asking questions that allowed me to become more confident in articulating myself effectively.
"I would like to thank SCI for supporting my trip to SETAC. My attendance has been integral to my career building, and I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to attend. There is a huge array of amazing research being conducted in the field of environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology, and I loved every minute of sharing my work and engaging with others!"
Anneliese Hodge
PhD researcher
Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Plymouth
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