Year 2005 Annual Report and Greetings

Dear members of NACESA, OCESTA, IPACES, and friends:

It is time again to wish all of you a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year, and also to look back to see what we have accomplished in this year. In the message that I sent you last February, I mentioned three items, and I would like to give you a brief report.

First, our distinguished member, Dr. Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, received the Roebling Medal from Mineralogical Society of Americanduring GSA Annual Meeting at Salt Lake City last October; Dr. Charles Prewitt gave the citation and Dave gave his excellent reception speech during MSA luncheon in the presence of his wife, Agnes, one of his daughters, Wendy, and many colleagues and friends. The special symposium in honor of Dave lasted for two days and Dave also gave his Roebling Lecture during the conference. A celebration dinner party in a nearby restaurant was well attended; we all enjoyed the foods, wine, and many stories about Dave. Again, congratulations, Dave!

The 6th WCCOGS took place at Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, in combination with 2005 Annual Meeting of Geological Society of China, Aug. 25 to 27, followed by a two-day field trip, touring the beautiful Keshiketeng Geological Park. More than 150 people attended the conference, including our eight overseas members, six from Taiwan, and several from Hong Kong. The conference was well organized and smoothly run. I was surprised to find out that Chifeng is a clean modern city. We all enjoyed the conference, foods, field trip, and Mongolian songs and dances in so many prearranged entertainment, and, of course, the interactions and friendship among participants. The venue for the next WCCOGS will be discussed after new committee members in GSC are elected later this year, and I will keep you informed.

I am very pleased to inform you that Shen-su Sun Foundation has been formally established. Your future support of this foundation will be highly appreciated. Also, the "state-of-the-art" ICP-MS lab in the Department of Geosciences in Taida was formally named as "Dr. Shen-su Sun Memorial Lab". For detail, please see attached files.

I am also very pleased to inform you that our other distinguished member, Prof. Louie (J.G.) Liou, retired recently from Stanford University, and, in his honor, there will be a special symposium to be held for two days this month at Stanford University right after Fall AGU. Many of his colleagues and friends from all over the world will gather together celebrating this event, and there will be more than 50 presentations at the symposium! Of course we don?t expect Louie will slow down, but we do hope he will follow his wife?s wishes to enjoy more free time. Congratulations, Louie, for your excellent accomplishment!

I am looking forward to meeting many of you at the Fall AGU meeting next week.
Again, have a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year!

I-Ming Chou