As the year’s end approaches, our hopes to see the pandemic crisis put behind us has unfortunately faded away. Our hearts and thoughts go out first to all who suffered the most from this terrible situation.

After almost two years of disruption, we have skillfully learned to adapt our methods of teaching, learning, and collaborating. Our skills in organizing the InterPore virtual world have improved and led to the successes we are all proud of. The 13th Annual Meeting (31 May – 04 June 2021), again a completely online event, attracted more than 800 participants with 824 presentations.

Of course, we also learned from the pandemic that direct in-person interaction is essential for our work efficiency, and that we so deeply miss social interaction within our community. Earlier this year, we had hoped we could finally go to China for our 14th Annual Meeting. Eventually, because of travel restrictions, we decided that the conference should be held at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. We are deeply grateful to Professor Mohamed Sassi, Chair of Petroleum Engineering of Khalifa University, for having worked out a very attractive proposal on extremely short notice. The conference is planned to be hybrid, but we all understand that the travel restrictions may force us to return to a purely online conference. We are following the situation closely and will inform the community as soon as possible of any developments. Concerning future events, we hope to organize, at last, InterPore2024 in Qingdao, China, and we also deeply thank the local organizers at China University of Petroleum for their commitment to this project.

Besides our outstanding and successful adaptation to the conditions created by the pandemic, 2021 saw intense activity by various committees, thanks to the dedication and active participation of their chairs and members.

The InterPore Academy and the InterPore Young Academy are two branches within InterPore that have seen significant growth in 2021. The InterPore Academy debuted this year with a new, outstanding series of lectures, and the Young Academy inspires and connects scientists of all ages with their Tea Time Talks continuing to attract a significant number of participants.

Great development was made in 2021 in the area of national chapters, which are an important forum for community members to form local networks among their industrial, governmental and academic members, and to act as a conduit to the broader international porous-media community. The National Chapter Committee, led by Didier Lasseux, was created in 2020 and met twice this year to encourage action in existing chapters and promote the creation of new ones. Existing chapters organized many important events like national conferences in 2021, representing an essential part of InterPore activity and influence. A special award was created in recognition of chapter activity, and the laureate for 2020 was the Mexico Chapter.

The potential for InterPore expansion is very strong in many areas. This year we welcomed two new chapters—Southern US and Israel—and plans for establishing several new chapters are already underway (US Midwest, Austria, and Japan). We have also devoted special attention to the expansion of InterPore on the African continent. A special task force has been created, chaired by Rachida Bouhlila and Brahim Amaziane, with the objective to start regional chapters in Africa. Again, we encourage the InterPore community to participate in this exciting project. We believe that the year 2022 will see concrete realizations in this direction.

Another important action undertaken in 2021 related to improving InterPore diversity, equality and inclusiveness (DEI) was the adoption of a DEI policy. A charter has been adopted by the InterPore Council, and a committee to facilitate and ensure adherence to this policy is under creation. InterPore committees have already been encouraged to add DEI criteria to their decisions (e.g., selection of conference invited speakers, nomination of committee chairs).

The InterPore Foundation, led by Steffen Berg, will begin its sixth year of porous media education and promotion. We are very pleased to see an increase in donations to the Foundation this year. In the future, donations collected by the Foundation will continue to be used to support scholars and students from low-income countries to attend InterPore’s annual meetings, and to encourage people of diverse backgrounds and more women to participate in research. The Foundation is also committed to promoting research on human safety, health, food and energy security by creating a wider and more equitable academic community. All of this depends on the sustainable development of the Foundation. Donations from various sources will be of great help to us and will help advance important research in different regions of the world.

InterPore offers a variety of awards to recognize exceptional achievements within the community. This year, the InterPore Meritorious Service Medal, an award which recognizes individuals for exceptional, prolonged, impactful, and meaningful services to the Society was presented for the first time. As in previous years, we have maintained the Kimberly-Clark Distinguished Lectureship series during the pandemic. For more information about these awards, please visit our website. Please consider nominating your colleagues for these and other InterPore awards.

Wikipore, our first Wikipedia site, was launched this year and will contribute toward one of our main missions as provider of valuable knowledge, its dissemination as well as linking community across disciplines and sectors. (See Wikipore for more information)

I hope that conditions will improve next year for all of us and that we are able to gather in Abu Dhabi for lively discussions and friendly social interactions.

Wishing you the best for the Holiday Season and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Stay safe,
Michel Quintard
President of InterPore