Welcome to the European Membrane Society web site

As a result of the elections, the new Council has been installed in February and will be working with even more enthusiasm for the promotion of our Society – and as a consequence, to research and industrial application of membranes in many ways.
As the new President for the coming two years, my gratitude goes to my predecessor, prof. Susana Luque, who did a great job in leading the EMS; to all those who left the Council, and in particular, to all of you for your trust in Silvia Alvarez Blanco, Luísa Neves, Thomas Schäfer, Alexey Volkov and myself.
As new Council members, we will represent the EMS and take initiatives to sustain and promote membrane expertise in Europe, together with Jörg Balster, Alessandra Criscuoli, Pavel Izak and Anthony Szymczyk who will continue serving in the Council. Anthony and Pavel will play a key role as Vice-Presidents of the Society.
In addition, let’s not forget two persons with a long track record for the EMS, supporting the Council in many ways: Pierre Aimar, the beating heart of the EMS, and Lidietta Giorno, former President and today, our representative in the European Membrane House and the organizers of Membrane News.
The new Council will not abort the good work, especially in the organization and support of membrane events; new initiatives include support to young academics (e.g., in conference attendance), and the globalization of membrane expertise with focus on underdeveloped parts of the world, notably the African continent.
Even in a year without Euromembrane or ICOM, the calendar is well filled. You can find many membrane events organized in different parts of the world (see Membranes Events), but of particular interest for the EMS is the 2013 Summer School in Essen (Germany), from July 22 to 26 http://www.ems-essen2013.de .
Mark also your calendar for the International Scientific Conference on Pervaporation, Vapor Permeation and Membrane Distillation from 12 to 15 May (www.pv.chem.umk.pl ), Engineering with Membranes in Ile d'Oléron (France), from 3 to 7 September 2013, and Permea, in Serock near Warsaw (Poland), from 15 to 19 September 2013 (http://www.permea2013.eu).
The EMS is also strengthening its links with the membranologists in the USA (NAMS, June), in Asia (AMS, July), and Australia (IMSTEC, November): conferences that may broaden our vision on a world of membranes.

Prof. Bart van der Bruggen
Bart.VanderBruggen@cit.kuleuven.be