Dear colleagues, Time to write my last message to you as EWRS President and deliver some topical EWRS News.
The EWRS General Assembly was held as on-line event on 7th December. Referring to the approval by the Assembly, I feel privileged to present a new Honorary Member, Dr. Hansjörg Krähmer from Germany, who now joins the current group of six EWRS Honorary Members, Congratulations! Actually, Dr. Krähmer is the latest EWRS President from the private sector, served as President during 2010-2011. He established the EWRS Working Group “European Weed Mapping” in 2009 and he has provided a lot of input to the WG activities ever since. You will find his “CV” in the GA material on the members-only section of web site.
Another good news is that the state of EWRS finances is in good shape because of limited expenditures during the two covid years and fair profits from the investments in the EWRS Foundation portfolio. The GA approved the Budget 2022 in which the Society invests a good amount of money on scientific affairs including special support to early career scientists. Activity Reports presented in the GA are available for the members in the EWRS web site’s Download section.
The EWRS Elections will bring some changes in the Board. I would like to thank Alicia Cirujeda and Ilias Travlos for their highly active commitment as Additional Members of the Board during 2018-2021. They have brought fresh ideas on how to keep the EWRS engine running and they strongly promoted weed research. Newly elected AMs, Therese W. Berge from Norway and Inés Santin from Spain, are warmly welcomed to join the crew. See you in the next Board meeting in Athens, June 2022. Two rounds were needed to elect the Vice President and finally Maurizio Vurro from Italy received the highest number of votes and will take the lead in the EWRS Scientific Committee in 2022-2023. Congratulations! I also warmly thank all other candidates for their availability to serve the Society.
”EWRS – Together with weeds since 1975” was the slogan that I introduced in the EWRS leaflets in the 1990’s when I served the Society as Board Secretary during 1996-2003. Now, I have spent wonderful four years with you, first as Vice President followed with a 2-year term as President. I was prepared to direct EWRS’s energy to promote and communicate weed management in Europe but sadly a nasty virus brought severe constraints in our scientific affairs. On-line communication can never replace physical meetings in which people discuss their research, share ideas and identify collaborations. The time will come again!
I would like to thank all the Board and Scientific Committee members who have supported me during this time. It was inspiring to continue implementing Paul Neve’s efforts on a new EWRS web site and on the future of our journal Weed Research. These media are both in full speed but need continuous input in term of contributions from all of us. It has been a great pleasure for me to follow and support the enthusiastic and professional work by Camilla Moonen and Sabine Gennai-Schott in the EWRS Communication Office. My special thanks go to Hüsrev Mennan, EWRS Scientific Secretary 2018-2025, with whom we have promptly handled hundreds of issues face to face, in emails, letters, phone and WhatsApp. In the end of 2021, I will step aside and continue as ordinary Board member and member of the EWRS Heritage Committee, chaired by Thomas Eggers.
I will hand the powerful EWRS President’s hammer over to Josef Soukup who will lead the Society for the next two years. He will bring much internal experience in the Society’s scientific affairs having served the EWRS as Scientific Secretary during 2010-2017 and as Chairperson of the SciCom in 2020-2021. Josef works in a key position of weed research in Czech Republic and has got world-wide connections and co-operation with public and private sector. Good luck, Josef!
Now that the submission of Abstracts for the 19th EWRS Symposium is extended until 16th January, I wish you all peaceful and relaxing moments for the remaining days of 2021!
Jukka Salonen, EWRS President
23 December 2021
Changing of the guard. Jukka Salonen passes the EWRS President’s Hammer to Josef Soukup.
Functional services available in agricultural fields during the winter.