Five AIPEA Committees have been established:
The Nomenclature Committee, the Teaching Committee, the Hazardous Minerals Committee, the ICC Committee, and the Early Career Clay Scientists (ECCS) Committee.
NOMENCLATURE COMMITTEE – Chair: Bruno Lanson
The purpose of the AIPEA Nomenclature Committee is to make general and specific recommendations concerning:
(1) definitions of mineralogical and crystallographic clay-related terms;
(2) classification and terminology of clays, clay minerals and related terms;
(3) standardization of structural and descriptive terms;
(4) the establishment of procedures/criteria for determining species;
(5) the emphasis (or re-emphasis) of the proper use of terms; and
(6) any additional aspects relating to nomenclature.
Approximately 12 published reports have been presented since the 1950s. However, an additional 12 unpublished reports have been archived, and many committee papers have been written by guest members asked to join the committee to help resolve a specific issue or by committee members to help lead the discussion of a specific topic. Although the latter papers have not been published, many illuminate the rationale behind recommendations. In addition, they may also show insight in areas still in need of additional research. In general, the Committee is not expected to provide research to reach a recommendation. Instead, where sufficient data are unavailable, the Committee may (or may not) note the insufficiency and postpone any further comment.
An extensive report has been published in Clay Minerals (2006; 41,863-877).
The Committee Members are:
Bruno Lanson – Chairman (2020-2025)
Jan Dietel (Landeslabor Berlin-Brandenbur, Germany)
Katja Emmerich (Karlsruhe Inst. Technol., Germany)
Hongping He (Guangzhou Inst. Geoch., China)
Steve Hillier (James Hutton Institute, UK)
Toshihiro Kogure (Univ. Tokyo, Japan)
Balwant Singh (Univ. Sydney, Australia)
Marek Szczerba (Polish Acad. Sci., Poland)
Elizabeth Rampe (NASA Johnson Space Center, USA)
George E. Christidis (Clay Minerals Editor, ex officio)
Joseph Stucki (Clays and Clay Minerals Editor, ex officio)
Yuan Peng (Applied Clay Science Editor, ex officio)
TEACHING COMMITTEE – Chair: Jeanne Percival
The purpose of the AIPEA Teaching Committee is to organize a session on teaching clay science at each International Clay Conference. The chair of the Teaching Committee coordinates with the chair of the upcoming International Clay Conference to assure that teaching clay science is included in the list of planned sessions, and serves as chair of the Teaching Clay Science session during the International Clay Conference. The committee members provide input on the structure of the session, suggestions for possible topics to highlight, and may identify individuals who have innovative teaching approaches to share. The chair of the 2021-2025 AIPEA Teaching Committee is Dr. Jeanne Percival.
HAZARDOUS MINERALS COMMITTEE – Chair: Saverio Fiore
The AIPEA Hazardous Minerals Committee was established in 2007 during the AIPEA Council Meeting in Aveiro (Portugal) The Committee is charged with acting as a source of information on clay minerals and clay-size minerals that are, or could be, hazardous for human and animal health. It is focused on available data on biological interactions and on aspects relating to the mineralogical risk.
ICC COMMITTEE – Chair: Chun Hui Zhou
The International Clay Conference (ICC) Committee was established in 2019 with the aim of providing aid for the organization and programming the International Clay Conference. To this purpose, two AIPEA ICC guidelines for organizers of a future ICC were edited and approved by the Council: one covering all the aspects to take into account for planning an ICC, and one summarizing all these aspects (AIPEA ICC organization and website at a glance). These guidelines were distributed to the Representatives of the National Clay Group Affiliated to AIPEA, and can be requested by the the National Clay Groups interested in future ICC organisation from president@aipea.org. Based on these guidelines proposals will be judged.
The Committee functions only in an advisory role and response to questions and concerns related to International Clay Conference. To this aim meetings are organized with the local organizing Committee of ICC and the members of the Committee convene at international and regional conferences, in-person or in-remote.
Six members belong to the ICC Committee: four are ex oficio (President, Vice-President, General Secretary, chair of the Teaching Committee); the other two members, selected among scientists having experience in organizing international conferences, are appointed by the President.
The ICC Committee is presently composed of:
Chun Hui Zhou (AIPEA, Vice President)
Bruno Lanson (AIPEA, President)
Peter Ryan (AIPEA, General Secretary)
Jeanne Percival (AIPEA, Chair Teaching Committee)
Alberto López Galindo (AIPEA, Treasurer and organizer of the ICC 2017 in Spain)
Saverio Fiore (AIPEA, organizer of the ICC 2009 in Italy).
EARLY CAREER CLAY SCIENTISTS COMMITTEE – Chair: Liva Dzene
The AIPEA Early Career Clay Scientists (ECCS) Committee was established in 2021. The purpose of the ECCS Committee is to support scientists that are within 5 years after completion of their PhD: Early Career Clay Scientists. AIPEA provides a platform for ECCS to connect them to regional, national or international clay groups, encouraging them to contribute to – and benefit from – the AIPEA network of clay societies. ECCSs also share cutting edge research on clays or other news using social media.
Committee members (2021-2025) are:
Liva Dzene
Eisuke Yamamoto
Guanzheng Zhuang
Committee members (2023-2027) are:
Mohamed Mouafon
Javier García Rivas
National representatives of ECCS Network [PDF]