Annual Conference
Between Crisis and Change: Pollutants, Health and Ecosystems in the Anthropocene
02–04 September 2026
Essen
Call for Abstracts
Chemical Universe Meets Planetary Boundaries. The annual Conference of the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology and SETAC GLB took place from 22 to 24 September 2025 at the headquarters of the German Environment Agency (UBA) in Dessau-Roßlau. The Conference focused on the issue that modern life is unimaginable without chemical substances and their diverse applications, yet their release into the environment has far-reaching consequences. From the increasing concentrations of persistent pollutants in soils and bodies of water to atmospheric pollution, chemical substances contribute to disrupting the Earth’s natural balance, with potentially irreversible consequences for people and the environment. The discussion focused on how sustainable solutions can be developed together.
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From the lecture theatre to practice & from the laboratory to the field scale. “Umwelt” is the joint annual conference of the GDCh Division of environmental chemistry & ecotoxicology and SETAC GLB. The 2024 edition took place from 8 to 11 September 2024 in Gießen and Homberg (Ohm). As always, non-members were very welcome. In addition to traditional sessions in the lecture theatre, there was, as 10 years ago, a field day at which methods were demonstrated and discussed in practice. It was also possible to give demonstrations of your own methods.
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Working together against global environmental pollution: education and research for clean solutions. What effects do different chemicals have on people, organisms and entire ecosystems? To answer this question, suitable methods must be developed, optimised and applied to obtain reliable results at various levels. Risk assessments are carried out and communicated based on these data – with the aim of avoiding or remedying harm. However, a sober examination of the past and the current global situation raises doubts as to whether our present approaches will also be sufficient in the future to prevent further negative effects and enable action that is sustainable on a global scale. To make this possible, applied solutions must be developed in collaboration with all stakeholders. As the degree of global interconnectedness and complexity increases, so too does the need for interconnected thinking and interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration in order to offer suitable solutions. In this spirit, the joint annual conference of SETAC-GLB and the GDCh Division of environmental chemistry & ecotoxicology 2023 in Muttenz focused on togetherness: We want to promote the networking and training of experts so that sustainable solutions to global environmental pollution become our future.
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Outdoors and Indoors. After two years without in-person meetings of the Division, the Umwelt 2022 Annual Conference took place from 5 to 7 September 2022 at the Emden campus of Hochschule Emden/Leer under the motto “Outdoors and Indoors – Substance Cycles in the Air / at Sea / on Land”. The scientific programme was once again jointly organised by the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry & Ecotoxicology and SETAC GLB. The Conference focused on substance cycles; “Buten und Binnen” means something like “outdoors and indoors”.
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Conference Proceedings
Under the motto “Anthropogenic substances in a changing world – assessment put to the test of reality”, the Umwelt 2021 Conference took place virtually on 7–8 September 2021. The scientific programme was jointly organised by the GDCh Division environmental chemistry & ecotoxicology and SETAC GLB.
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The Environment 2020 Conference unfortunately had to be cancelled or postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Biodiversity in water and on land – The role of chemical stressors. The biodiversity crisis is on everyone’s lips and news reaches citizens almost daily: fungal diseases are wiping out amphibians, wind turbines are killing birds of prey, and invasive species are threatening native flora and fauna. Chemicals are also a focus here. Neonicotinoids are suspected of contributing to bee mortality, PCBs accumulate in charismatic mammals and glyphosate is even detected in humans. However, the questions of the role of chemical stressors in the context of multiple stressors and the extent to which they actually contribute to the decline of biodiversity in water and on land receive little attention in the media. Nor have they been clearly resolved in scientific discourse. The Conference was dedicated to these topics.
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Umwelt 2018 was organised at the University of Münster with the support of the Division and SETAC GLB. The topics of the conference included new analytical techniques and methods and their applications in the environmental chemical and ecotoxicological context, the occurrence and behaviour of pollutants and trace substances in surface water, groundwater, soils, sediments and air, their accumulation, transformation and effects on terrestrial and aquatic organisms, taking various modes of action and test procedures into account, as well as assessment and regulatory concepts (e.g. the reassessment of PAHs in the amendment of the Federal Soil Protection Act (BBodSchG)).
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2016 Annual Conference with SETAC GLB: “How relevant are trace substances for people and the environment?”
How relevant are trace substances for people and the environment? This question was at the heart of the interesting specialist event. The Division specifically organised the session: “Coals and coal-like substrates – behaviour in the environment and pollutant binding”
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15th EuChemS International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment
The most significant Conference on the topic of environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology, the ICCE (2013 in Barcelona, 2011 in Zurich and 2009 in Stockholm) was held in Leipzig in 2015 with the participation of the Division and replaced the separate Annual Conference.
"Exploring foundations, applying insights, communicating knowledge"
“Daring to take risks” must have been the guiding principle of this year’s hosts of the annual environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology conference in Gießen, Prof. Rolf-Alexander Düring and Prof. Klaus Peter Ebke, when they decided to depart from the previous conference format, which was based exclusively on talks and posters, and dedicate a day to practical demonstrations in the form of outdoor sessions. Their courage was rewarded with much positive feedback from the nearly 300 registered participants.
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The planned annual meeting of the GDCh Division in Wuppertal had to be cancelled at short notice due to insufficient registrations. The Board of the Division was therefore very grateful that colleagues in Essen spontaneously offered to accommodate the GDCh colleagues who had registered their contributions for Wuppertal. This meant that the number of registrations, which had also declined slightly at SETAC GLB, could be supplemented by the additional GDCh contributions.
From 10–13 September 2012, more than 200 scientists met for the 5th joint annual conference of SETAC GLB and the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, held under the motto “Recognise, Investigate, Model – The Benefits of Understanding”.
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Participation in the 13th European environmental chemistry Conference of EuChemS, ICCE
Instead of holding a conventional annual conference or a joint conference with SETAC, the Division participated in the 13th European environmental chemistry Conference of EuChemS, ICCE, in 2011. The main organiser of ICCE is the Division of Chemistry and the Environment of EuChemS. Thomas Knacker and Gerhard Lammel represented the Division on the Organising Committee. In 2011, this conference was the European version of the annual conference.
4th Joint Annual Conference with SETAC-GLB: Environment 2010 − From Knowledge to Decision-Making
For the first time, a public authority – the German Environment Agency – took over the organisation of the Conference and proved that it was just as capable of handling this task as the previous academic organisers. The publication prize of the Division was also awarded at the Conference. To pre-empt any doubt: the local organising committee provided this proof, which cannot have been easy given approximately 350 participants and around 100 presentations. This was due not only to the exemplary organisation and the varied accompanying programme, but also to the inspiring atmosphere of the Conference venue – the German Environment Agency’s headquarters in Dessau.
Following the conference’s broad scope, many aspects of the input, behaviour and effects of chemicals in water, soil and air were addressed in around 70 presentations and more than 60 posters. The main focal areas were “monitoring and measurement networks”, “environmental specimen banks”, “atmospheric chemistry, tropospheric aerosol”, “soil contamination” and “environmental analysis”.
3rd Joint Annual Conference of SETAC-GLB and GDCh Division Environmental Chemistry & Ecotoxicology: "New Contaminants in the Environment – Detection, Effects, Solutions"
The overarching theme of this year's Conference was “New Contaminants in the Environment – Detection, Effects and Possible Solutions”. The focus was on pharmaceuticals, perfluorinated chemicals, pesticides and nanoparticles, for example. “New Contaminants” are substances that have either only been released into the environment for a short time or have already been present in the environment for decades but have only recently been perceived as problematic. The 300 participants from both societies impressively demonstrated how important this topic is.
"From chemodynamics in ecosystems to substance assessment. Methods, concepts and assessments in the service of sustainable development"
The annual conference covered a wide range, from substance transformations in individual environmental compartments to substance assessment, and from local to global issues. In around 60 presentations and almost 70 poster contributions, the 180 participants presented and discussed methods, concepts and assessments. The scientific committee, chaired by Prof. Dr. Michael Matthies of the Institute of Environmental Systems Research at Osnabrück University, was responsible for the programme.
From the “end-of-pipe” strategy to sustainability
The Division conference took place on the premises of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Unlike in previous years, it was neither a meeting of several Divisions nor a block of lectures within the GDCh Annual Meeting, but an independently organised event. The range of topics was broad, in order to take into account as many current developments as possible in the fields of environmental and pollutant research, sustainable chemistry and consumer protection. The central theme, “Modern humans in the ecosphere and technosphere”, continued the tradition of previous events.
2nd Joint Annual Conference with SETAC-GLB: "Finding Boundaries, Overcoming Boundaries – Molecular Mechanisms and Ecosystem Processes"
The varied and interdisciplinary programme, featuring 85 posters and 75 presentations, provided a comprehensive overview of current environmental pollutant research and attracted 280 participants to the imperial city of Aachen. This time, the Dutch scientific organisations KNCV-MC (Royal Dutch Chemistry Society – Environmental Chemistry Section), VVM (Netherlands Association of Environmental Professionals), NVT-MT (Dutch Toxicology Society – Environmental Toxicology) and the European association FECS (Federation of European Chemical Societies and Professional Institutions) also took part in shaping the conference programme. As a result, the mixed English- and German-language conference was attended by 30 scientists from other European countries.
Chemistry, Toxicology and the Environment
As part of the GDCh Annual Conference 2003 in Munich, the Division was involved in shaping the content of three half-days (Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning and afternoon). The event was held under the motto “Chemistry, Toxicology and the Environment” in order to incorporate current developments in the field of molecular toxicology while also reflecting the current discussion within the Division on a stronger integration of toxicological issues and their relationship to environmental chemistry.
1st Joint Annual Conference with the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC, German Language Branch): "Research and Development in the Service of Environmental and Consumer Protection"
In addition to review lectures, a large number of lectures and posters were presented at the annual conference on the following topics: ecosystem and material flow analysis/modelling, consumer protection/toxicology, aquatic and terrestrial systems (environmental monitoring, biocidal chemicals, ecotoxicological test systems), atmosphere/climate, risk assessment/risk minimisation as well as sustainable chemistry, technology and education.