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DOE Environmental Symposia in Central and Eastern Europe
In 1990, Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management made a strategic decision to sponsor the First International Symposium and Exhibition on Environmental Contamination in Central and Eastern Europe. The first symposium was conducted in Budapest, Hungary in September 1992. Every two years since then, a sequel to this initial symposium has been conducted in the Central European region. These symposia have been conducted in Budapest, Hungary (1992 and 1994); Warsaw, Poland (1996 and 1998) and Prague, Czech Republic (2000 and 2002 - planned). The most recent symposium, Prague 2000, had over 700 participants from 40 countries. These symposia have become an institution in Europe as well as the United States. These were the first and are now the largest environmental meetings in this region of the world.
Prior to 1989, the countries in Central and Eastern Europe were under Soviet control. For approximately forty years, little concern was paid to environmental protection. These countries have historically been highly industrialized, with concentrations of manufacturing, mining and other heavy industries. Results of the lack of environmental concern and heavy industry are tremendous environmental problems throughout the region. On the other hand, the scientists in the Central and Eastern European region have excellent academic training, particularly in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Modeling and other basic sciences. It is the combination of these two factors: severe environmental problems and highly skilled scientists that initially focused DOE’s attention on the Central and Eastern European region. When the Cold War ended in November 1989, many U.S. and international agencies approached the region to provide assistance on many environmental fronts. For DOE, an added benefit existed (i.e., the ability to identify technical and scientific capabilities to assist with DOE cleanup needs). The organization of an on-going series of international symposia focusing on the environment proved to be an effective way to identify a broad network of these Central European scientists who could work collaboratively with the DOE on shared environmental problems. Beyond purely academic motivations, scientists in this region have been working for many years on the same kinds of cleanup problems (nuclear weapons production and nuclear reactor-related problems) as DOE scientists. Glass making, vitrification and nuclear chemistry are areas of specialization in the Czech Republic.
These symposia consist of plenary sessions with internationally known experts from the U.S. and Europe, concurrent technical sessions including hundreds of platform presentations in many technical focus areas and an exhibition of environmental technologies and services vendors. In addition, there are multiple, interactive poster sessions involving hundreds of students and scientists. An important feature of each symposium is the Student Scholar and Symposium Fellow Program. This program is designed to encourage participation by graduate students and new environmental professionals in the symposium. During the Prague 2000 Symposium, there were over 200 Student Scholars and Symposium Fellows who participated from many countries. All of the student scholars are required to participate in a poster competition in which awards are given for outstanding presentations. Many of today’s environmental problems (those of DOE as well as other US and international entities) will require years or research and development to resolve, and it is thought that encouraging the participation of young scientists in these symposia will help to ensure a future knowledge base and workforce to address these problems. Proceedings are published after each symposium in CD-ROM format. These environmental symposia provide a great benefit to the U.S. DOE in identifying scientists and scientific capabilities that can be accessed to help address DOE environmental cleanup problems. In addition, these events provide an international forum for DOE scientists to showcase their accomplishments to the international community. For additional information, contact:
Symposium Coordinator
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