Dear Colleagues,
It is our pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the COIPM, to the 20th International Congress on Marine Corrosion and Fouling (ICMCF), which will be held on June 16-21, 2024, at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China.
The ICMCF has been the foremost international scientific conference on marine fouling and corrosion since its inception in France in 1964. Subsequently, conferences have been held across the globe, including the United States, Europe, Australia, Brazil, Japan and Singapore. The ICMCF has a rich history of hosting attendees and speakers from both academia and industry, thus providing an environment that not only eases interaction and collaboration, but instigates the establishment of relationships. The forthcoming ICMCF will keep with past traditions by providing an interdisciplinary program that will highlight research efforts in understanding and combating biofouling and corrosion.
It will be the first time for ICMCF to be held in China which has a large marine area, rich marine resources and vibrant maritime industries. The venue will be in Guangzhou, the economic and cultural center of Southern China, where trades of silk, porcelain, spices and dyes began 2000 years ago. The ancient Maritime Silk Road started from Guangzhou Port, passed through the Strait of Malacca, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and finally reached the Mediterranean Sea thus connecting Asia, Europe and Africa together. Today, Guangzhou is developing rapidly within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The coming conference will be hosted by South China University of Technology (SCUT), a leading educational institution in China. After over 60 years of development, SCUT has become a multi-disciplinary university, merging science, engineering, business management, arts and social science, medicine and other disciplines into one integration. SCUT values the development of marine science. We will try our best to organize a high-standard conference for experts from around the world to discuss the latest basic and applied research advances related to marine biofouling and corrosion.
Join us for a rewarding experience at the 20th ICMCF! We look forward to seeing you in Guangzhou.
Professor Guangzhao Zhang,
20th ICMCF Chair
South China University of Technology
